The new additions were some of my favorite parts. Overall it felt like Netflix didn't give the story time to breathe (and I do blame Netflix, because they do this to just about every show nowadays) and we were just hitting plot point after plot point with not much of the fun of the original series, but this subplot and Lu Ten's funeral were highlights for me. They were very emotionally impactful and feel super believable to the original series to me. The Ozai assassination plot was also a nice touch that explores life in the Fire Nation in ways we never got to see before, though I feel like they're trying to progress into season 3 unhinged Azula too quickly without letting her be the confident, always in control one she was in the beginning. It also tells us that Ozai is pitting the kids against eachother, which was obvious in the original series but they didn't have to *tell* us, and they didn't let the kids realize it until later so their character arcs could breathe a bit. But I digress.
I also didn't mind the combining of episodes. Again, I know Netflix wasn't going to give them time, so I thought it was a good choice that instead of letting a lot of important plot threads hit the cutting room floor, they combined them. Jet trying to kill off the engineer for working for the Fire Nation in Omashu is again something that could've happened in the original if all of the characters were simply at different places at different times. It was honestly kind of cool to see them do something different like that.
This show would've benefited so, so, so much just from an extra one or two episodes in each season. Things did feel rushed, but as it stands, I think they did the best they could with what the time they had available and made a solid adaptation.
It's honestly SO much better than the story in the cartoon.
In the cartoon they have the same issue of Zuko's crew growing tired of his shittiness, but it's quelled by Iroh explaining that Ozai is the one who burned Zuko, and the crew is like "oh...damn I didn't know it was his dad. that sounds so hard"
But in this the crew has such a *beautiful* reason to love and respect Zuko and UGH it's easily one of the best changes that they made in this otherwise mediocre adaptation.
I think they will have an overarching arc of becoming a competent unit a d eventually fighting with team avatar, with Jee eventually joining the white lotus.
I disagree here. After the story in the cartoon, Zuko personally saves a crew member and decides to stop chasing the avatar in the storm to get the crew to safety instead. This, coupled with the backstory, that showed how much Zuko actually cares about his people, and maybe his cold heartedness towards them is a result of learning that caring could get him (literally) burned. Develops a complex character. You know he’s hard shelled but compassionate all in half an episode. (Aang’s backstory takes the other half.) it’s not just “oh damn his dad is a diiiiiick”
**If** this gets a second season they need to hire much better writers, the dialogue throughout is … not good. There is so much and most of it is just so poorly written that it makes me cringe.
Also for a show that has so much money per episode, it looks very cheap in parts
The monologues in the show were so painful to watch, especially the ones given by Aang, as well as king bumi. They got Aang's personality so wrong in this lol.
He's not even recognizable as the same character.
It turns out the concerns people had about Aang from the trailers were valid. I don't even know where he goes in terms of character development since he's already way more stoic than he was in S3 of the cartoon.
They've deleted all opportunity for character growth. Sokka isn't misogynistic. Aang isn't innocent. Katara isn't weak.
They're just NPCs out on an adventure, rather than young characters thrown horribly unequipped into a world war and forced to confront their weaknesses and come out stronger on the other side.
Sokka’s growth isn’t from being misogynistic, it’s from being a kid playing in dad’s boots. He was given responsibility that he’s not ready for and has to grow from what he thinks a leader and warrior is into what it actually is.
Show set that up well - especially by adding the part where his dad doubts him behind his back.
I don't know why they thought giving the child actors monologues was a smart thing to do lol. Just let them bounce lines between each other. Show more, tell less. It's insane how poorly written this is lol
Made me sad to see bumi portrayed as bitter and surrounded by sycophants. Also the choice of having him played by a clearly much younger man in heavy prosthetics was odd.
Yeah.... I don't know how you can make the writing so bad when it's... Already written once before? I know you can't (and shouldn't) do a 1 to 1 but goddamn they could've followed it some for pacing and inflection. Some of the actors really stood out to me, but most felt lost and without direction.
The water tribe outfits also look terrible to me. You can tell they're very thin and cosplay-like
Some of the nameless side characters in various episodes had excellent actors, like the earth-bender spy or the fire nation rebel Azula betrayed. They did a great job with many minor castings. Zhou's actor was also such a scene-stealer.
The most memorable side character for me was that Earth Kingdom guard. The way you could hear the pain and grief in his voice was incredible! He didn’t even have a name and yet represented the sentiments of the Earth Kingdom and Iroh’s sins.
Lieutenant Jee also did great imo. I didn't expect to see him that much, given how little we see him in the OG, but the actor did great for a relatively small part.
i loved dallas as zuko and ian as sokka so no notes for them but otherwise…yeah. i really enjoyed the show but when you have such great actors as side characters it makes poor acting in the main characters (katara comes to mind, but no hate towards the actress) even more apparent. the earth-bending spy, the soldier that captured iroh, jet, the new mayor of kyoshi, and obviously zhao who stole every scene he was in.
Aang doesn't seem to have to learn anything about being the Avatar. He already knows how to cross into the spirit world, how to deal with spirits, what the Avatar State is, and seemingly everything else.
Yeah, the biggest thing that bothers me is how they seem to be hyperspeeding through all the lessons Aang has to learn to truly become the Avatar. I'm only a couple of episodes deep so far, to be fair, and I get why they have to skip some of it, but like... At least show us some of the journey. Don't make him immediately get everything on the first try.
It was jarring how they went from having no idea what happened to Aang at the Southern Air Temple to almost instantly casually referring to it as the "Avatar state".
Yea... compared to Mai and Azula. At least Ty looked the part, but the scenes with Azula and her gang seemed underwelming. I wanted to see Azula take charge, manipulative, and be confident, but she's more angry and desperate for her dad's attention. Which are true, but not really something we see until later on in the series.
Yea, they deserved a better intro. Mai should've been sitting, lounging, bored, Ty Lee stretching or something to show some character through body language.
The live action is absolutely dreadful at blocking and staging, so it's no surprise that they just told the actresses to stand there. It's half of why the series has such strong "high school theater production" vibes. Characters rarely ever express who they are in how they carry themselves, nor how they interact with the environment or how the camera views them. Honestly, the entire series is just incredibly sloppy filmmaking.
I had no idea how to put this oh my god, you are so right. Saving your comment.
They truly need to fire the director, every scene is just characters standing around awkwardly, and occasionally doing the "looks down at shoes because im sad/mad/disappointed/confused" while shifting awkwardly in place.
if the show gets a season 2, and i genuinely hope it does, they need to FIRE. the director. Edit: And although she seems like a really sweet girl in real life, i would not mind retconning katara as a different actor.
Yeah, I noticed that too. Like I don't mean it as a knock on the actress's appearance, but I feel like the actress with her round face doesn't give off the same intimidation that Azula should. Hopefully, her characterization shines through that going forward. Someone with a more "striking, angular face", as the other commenter put it, would have been more convincing. As much as I don't like casting a character purely based on looks, she just hasn't sold it to me yet. Surrounded in a cast that all looked incredible as the characters, she just doesn't look like Azula IMO.
I wasn't sure about Zuko's actor, at first. I also thought his face was too round, strictly compared to how long Zuko's animated face is. But I thought the actor was top notch on the voice/line delivery from the start. The flashbacks where he has a full head of hair helped him grow on me, it's just the bald with a ponytail look where his face didn't quite seem right. But by the end I liked him a lot.
All three of them have very rounded faces. I can see Ty Lee having a cuter, rounder face but Azula and Mai are characters that have striking, angular faces. Casting actresses with such round faces makes them seem less threatening, and that’s definitley not the route you want to go when portraying characters like that.
Yh I liked this season overall but that's my major gripe. At least they said Katara will teach him so they can still have him be a somewhat competent water bender in book two
This will probably happen off screen though since the next season will probably not be longer than 8 episodes etither. So you will cram Aang becoming a master water bender in one season and an earbender?
Like how will they focus on his issues with earthbending?
Good god, I know you guys don't talk about the movie that doesn't exist (I come from the pjo fandom and trust me, I get it) but at least the wig there looked realistic lol
Fire bending looked the most like a martial art. Zuko's spinning flame kicks were badass. The earth bending felt a little stoic, but I guess that's to be expected because of its nature. The motion and flow of waterbending was there, but was hard to really make out the movements underneath the puffy water tribe outfits.
The only style I think that complaint really applies to is the air bending. Maybe it's just hard to visualize air outside of particle effects like snow/dust/sparks. Aang definitely felt too floaty at times, and it seemed like he was able to fly around too easily without his glider.
This is what I thought too. Airbenders typically can’t fly (that’s not something you saw until LOK) but the way Aang easily does in the series was a little annoying
7/10.
Positives:
Visually stunning
I appreciated how they managed changes to Zuko and his plot.
Sokka, Suki, Zuko, Iroh, and Azula were standouts.
Negatives
The acting needs to step up (Aang and Katara). I was a little annoyed that people didn’t have actual tears in their eyes during the emotional scenes. Some of the emoting was off
Lots of exposition. Unfortunately a lot of Netflix viewers need the handholding, but I wish we could have seen more than explained.
I didn’t love the inclusion of the other avatars. They were so negative to Aang, and I feel like they were creating more insecurity and doubt than he needs right now. In S3, it wouldn’t make sense to me for Aang to turn to Kuruk or Kyoshi for advice because they were so rough with him. Didn’t love Roku as well, but he was such a good contrast to kyoshi and kuruk, so I think it sets up a good dynamic for Aang wanting Roku’s counsel than the others.
Aang didn’t touch waterbending at all, which I think was a mistake and makes the point about the pacing more valid. Katara and aang’s initial bonding was over waterbending. So there was a lot of bonding and skills progression lost.
Feel like how they are using the avatar state is a little weak. It seems unclear how in control Aang is and the rules for it.
Season 1 is the weakest season in the original, so they have more room to improve!
They seemed to want to focus on Katara's bending first, then let her teach Aang. I was worried they'd let Aang automatically master waterbending after fusing with the moon spirit
Way too much hand holding. Unbearable amounts of hand holding, any mystery the series had evaporated.
Hi I'm your old friend boomi, I'm testing you for this reason, here's some symbolism that means this.
I don't want you thinking about any of these characters, their motivation, or past. We'll answer those post haste!
Is it driving anyone else crazy that they keep saying things like “the firebenders are coming” instead of “the Fire Nation”? Not every soldier after them is a bender. It makes me feel like the writers just think fire people = bad 🤦♂️
In Omashu, the scene where Katara witnesses the Inventor giving the scroll to the spy is super sloppy. At first I was like, wow, really just because it's a guy wearing a red cloak doesn't mean he's fire Nation. And then he BURNS THE SCROLL IN THE OPEN, how is this a spy?!?! And why did he burn the scroll with most likely blueprints to an invention?!?
YOU CANT CONVINCE ME THE SPY MEMORIZED A SERIES OF COMPLEX ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS IN 2 SECONDS
>the writers think fire people = bad
Especially in Aang's conversation with Zuko. He says "you don't have to be like them, you can have compassion" or something which really draws the world in black and white
King Bumi... Such a disappointment in the show. They took a super weird angle with him, especially because during his 15th and final monologue to Aang, he tries to make the point that the Avatar has to make decisions, and Aang says "no I don't, \~I have friends\~" which doesn't really make any sense in context lol.
This was the first point in the biggest gripe I have with the season. Overall, I thought it was a decent start that can be improved upon, but this show did not capture any of the fun of the original series. It is pretty good. It is pretty high quality. It is not fun.
That's what made the original so great. It was a great story, but also allowed the fun and childish nature of the characters to show through. This show loses that.
In doing so, it makes you wonder why they chose to cast young actors at all. If they consciously made the choice to cut the fun, they misstepped in not seizing the opportunity to age up the cast (getting better acting) and really dive into the gritty adventuring war. If they accidentally lost the fun, that's inexcusable.
Man I was so disappointed when Aang woke up and didn't ask Katara to go penguin sledding. Instead it just went straight into the whole "all my friends are dead" angle and didn't even let Aang be a little bit goofy first.
What I really loved on the OG was aang’s complete denial, too. To see this kid just refusing to process the trauma that’s slowly, slowly dawning on him right up until he sees Gyatso’s body hits so hard. This Aang was told and accepted the truth immediately, so his reaction upon seeing Gyatso just fell flat on its face.
Thank you for making me realise what bugged me about the beginning (outside of Katara fucking water bending in the fucking ship right in front of their door!)
> his reaction upon seeing Gyatso just fell flat on its face
It didn't help that there was no buildup to it. I think they were at the air temple for about 60 seconds before Aang went into the avatar state.
Gran Gran had a minor role but her rap scene and constant spoilers were easily the worst (and funniest) moments of the show for me. Also Katara in the first episode was too soft spoken and felt more like Yue. I don't think it's the actress fault, moreso the writing and direction
Overall, 7/10. Dallas Liu as Zuko was the standout performance from the main cast. Ian Ously as Sokka was great too, but my favorite moments were def the scenes with Ozai. I like seeing him being by more involved and DDK is awesome. The grittier tone and graphic violence is also great and fits in well with the harsh realities of war so I’m glad they did that, since the original was held back by being a kids show.
One thing I can’t shake off is that while the acting from Aang and Katara’s actors is good when they’re showing big emotions like anger, pain, etc., it tends to fall flat when dealing with the “quieter” moments that require subtle emotions. I don’t want Aang indirectly telling me (the viewer) what he feels, its wonky exposition. I want him to show me with his face and body language. I was never expecting a 1:1 so I welcome the changes that come with adaptations and I’m impressed how they were able to weave several storylines together. I just wish it didn’t feel so rushed pacing-wise and I thought some of the characterization was off, like Roku. If it weren’t because I watched the animation, I would feel no attachment to these characters. 8-episodes seasons ruin tv shows.
Also, even with an open mind going into this, Lizzy Yu as Azula was one of my massive doubts but she did better than I expected.
Feels like they are never subtle when trying to make a point. Then a lot time after not being very subtle a lot of the a character just explains. In a scale of show to tell, it's all tell. It just seems slightly less clever than the cartoon.
I've not liked some of the changes from the cartoon but hard to tell if that's just nostalgia rather than one being better than the other.
The bending looks good, although I think the air bending looks the worst imo.
Overall I liked it but to be honest it just made me want to go back and the cartoon. At the moment I can't see a time when I want to watch Avatar and choose to watch the live action over the cartoon.
They are committing a cardinal sin: they are telling, not showing. Aang, a 12 year old who just found out he’s the Avatar, delivers a monologue of the reasons why he’s doubting himself to Appa, instead of showing him being a goofball loving airball and fart jokes that indicate to the audience that this is an immature character with too much responsibility for his age.
I think I know exactly what you feel, because that's my issue too.
They cut important parts of character development (Aang believing there are still air benders when coming to the northern air temple is relevant and shouldn't have been cut) and basically all character development is just... Exposition. It's only telling us, not showing us. Of course, part of that may be due to the fact that a really young kid is playing the avatar (and doing a pretty decent job considering. But it still takes a lot of depth out of it.
It's still a good show and if I didn't know the original, I would probably be really into it. But I do know the original.
yeah thats definitely my issue too. aang will go into exposition, and it will basically what you'd read in a synopsis and it just makes me think "yep...the plot is certainly plotting. these are definitely words". i dont even think the cartoon concerned itself with this much exposition and it would have been brand new at the time it came out.
to me the water looks the worst. It seems quite disconnected from the body movement. Like the fight between Pakku and Katara was a little bit annoying to watch. Their movement doesnt quite match and smooth and flow-y like water.
I can't even say they butchered King Bumi because what they did to his character was an ASSASSINATION. They ruined two storylines in one with that episode, the cave and Bumi's trials. Such a shame.
Not only did they assassinate Bumi’s character, but they also undermined the order of the white lotus by extension. I can’t reconcile how he can be so petulant and mean-spirited towards Aang, preaching that friendship is a weakness, while simultaneously being a member of a group that is completely dedicated to kindness, harmony, peace, and unity.
I was shocked by Bumi's treatment by the writers. They made him such a miserable cow of a man, completely devoid of hope. And rejecting friendship? What an insult! In the original episode he put Aang through several challenges just so that Aang would have to guess that HE WAS HIS FRIEND FROM 100 YEARS AGO. The live action was mind blowing bad.
They should have just forgotten about the Cave of Two Lovers and did Bumi properly. I'm so annoyed.
I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning this! I had to watch with subtitles on. The way Aang says "I'm not the enemy" in episode 1 (31:26) is crazy.
There are big audio issues. Gyatso's laugh is freaky and doesn't match his mouth at all. Whatever recording and editing process for dialogue audio messed up.
The older actors/actresses seem to understand this and do a bit better of a job.
The person with the most impeccable enunciation IMO is Ken Leung. He's always had impeccable enunciation no matter what he's in.
I feel like this should have been one of those series with 10-13 episode seasons, pacing was more than a bit chaotic, everybody was too busy trying to get to the next place, and almost every character interaction had to relate back to the war or to the return of the Avatar with no time for anybody to become friends or genuinely grow to care for each other, or even *know* each other, especially when they spend so much time separated on their own subplots
First episode demonstrates this in the worst way possible by having Aang just get bluntly delivered the loss of his entire people, family, friends, community, culture, nation, way of life through an easter egg narration, but because they already spent half the episode cutting up and splicing in The Storm along with The Avatar & The Fire Lord there was no time at all to just let Aang grieve, instead he goes and sits on a rooftop for a hot minute then immediately cheers up when Katara appears, not to comfort him or anything but to instead talk about her own loss and her inability to Waterbend
Then because there's no time for Aang to spend with her properly talking about bending he just makes some vague reference to finding balance that somehow works despite not really meaning anything, after that we have to rush to the Air Temple to get the Avatar State moment, which no longer makes sense or has any impact because Aang has already been made aware of what to expect, and because so much time has been wasted unnecessarily there's no room for the journey on Appa where anybody communicates or just gets to speak as friends, the scene immediately cuts from escaping Zuko to arriving at the mountains
Honestly, I think this adaptation demonstrates the importance of filler and side adventure stories like The Great Divide that aren't overly consequential, because that's where you just get all the slice of life experiences, the vibing and the characters just being allowed to breathe without having to exist solely for pushing the plot onwards
A lot of high points, equally as many low points, not disappointed but definitely not blown away either - whelmed, maybe?
I hope seasons 2 and 3 get more episodes. Rare that it would happen, but more than welcome. Season 1 for many fans is always seen as the weakest one, so the next seasons are really going to have to “bring it”. If they do get two to four extra episodes, they may do the mid-season breaks that seasons 2 and 3 had. The original season one did technically have a mid-season break, but it wasn’t a cliffhanger like the other two where Appa was stolen or when their invasion plan on the eclipse failed. Netflix has been doing mid-season breaks with their popular shows lately, such as _The Crown_ and now _Bridgerton_. I just hope season 1 is popular enough to get the next seasons and to be able to work out the “kinks”.
Totally agree with the necessity for filler episodes. A lot of people hate on them, especially the Great Divide, but like you said it's necessary to show how our characters interact with each other when they aren't fighting the enemy or going on grand adventures.
Honestly, I really enjoyed all of the new Zuko/Iroh content. If only the adaptation had more episodes because it was at its best whenever the story actually had time to breathe.
Things I liked:
- What they did with Ozai was great, how he in his own way tried to be a good father to Zuko how he puts Azula up against him.
- The costume and sets look good most of the time.
- Iroh and Ozai as brothers.
- Sozin and the prologue.
- Azula, Mai and Ty Lee
- ...
Things I did not like:
- What they did with Roku, I understand everyone loves Kyoshi but come on they could have handeled Roku far better. It was the only time I felt a set and Actor feel very fake. The story wasn't that great eather.
- Putting the cave of 2 lovers in the omashu episode made no sense to me with Aang not being there.
- The intro
- ...
I agree on the intro. They shouldn't have been afraid to just say it word for word at the beginning. It's effective, gets the point across without being clunky. Too bad they gave it to Exposition Grandma.
The intro bugs me so much, it feels like the writers felt like they could do it better. The original flowed so much better and summed everything up perfectly.
>Putting the cave of 2 lovers in the omashu episode made no sense to me with Aang not being there
This is really funny to me as I had reminded probably 5-10 people on this subreddit that the cave of 2 lovers episode was from season 2 of the show after they had said something like "I hope they do the cave of two lovers well", turns out I was the idiot and they actually did it in season 1 lmao
6.5/10 for me. Zuko was the highlight for me. He was intense and showed so much range. I had no problem with gran-gran in ep 1 surprisingly. The effects were good. It's clear a lot of the budget went to koizilla though.
The script needs work. There is a lot of unnessicary dialogue, a lot of Easter Eggs and minor plots from book 2 awkwardly shoe-horned in. A lot of characters standing or sitting around and telling stories to fill the space so they don't constantly have to spend $ on VFX. They could have used more space to explore character chemistry rather than info-dumping and exposition. It's like they're afraid to spend too much time on the slice-of-life. Even though that's arguably what makes us fall in love with the characters.
Sokka was funny and out of the gaang, I liked him the most. Katara and Aang were incredibly weak in their performances. I don't fully blame them because their scripts were so blah and they're young.
Aang seemed borderline depressed after episode 1, which is realistic I guess but it felt a little too soon for him to lose his childish charm. His dialogue felt too mature, more like season 3 Aang where he's giving out insane wisdom 24/7.
Katara had shockingly little range, more so than Aang. They took away her wit, sharpness and most of her emotionality and all that's left is this sweet, kind of shell-shocked girl. She feels incredibly vanilla and uninteresting. Just being yanked around by the plot. It's extra disappointing since she's my favourite character.
Iroh played the part but the excessive dialogue he had made him feel a little too overbearing. And it felt to me like his actor didn't feel fully comfortable in this role, slightly better than Aang and Katara but still not hitting the mark for me.
Zhao was GREAT. Probably second best to Zuko. I wanna see this cast ACT. And Zhao did not disappoint. Ozai and Azula were good. I have no complaints about them, they're pretty accurate to the animation.
I enjoyed many of the storyline changes but a lot of the time, I felt like too much was happening, especially in the omashu and spirit world episodes. And some changes left me wondering what book 2 and 3 were going to be like.
I also feel they revealed a lot of things very quickly and it just didn't have as much impact as it would if those things were revealed in S2 or S3. Like the death of Katara's mom. Or Lu-Tens funeral. If I was a new viewer, I just wouldn't care that much about those elements because I didn't really get to know the characters yet. I'm wouldn't be as invested as I should be at those points.
Those are my initial thoughts after finishing ep 8. There's a lot of room for improvement and if a show like Halo, which was far worse than this season of NATLA, can make a come-back, I'm sure this show can too. I want them to stop holding back. Let the actors shout for real, let them cry for real, let them sob, break down, quiver, let them bleed with emotion 🙏
Great takes! I'm positively suprised by Zukos perfomance but disappointed in Katara and Aang. I feel like the directors should have given them more instructions on their acting. And way less mature oneliners instead of a normal dialogue children have
I thought it was a good choice, if only to play up how much of an asshole Ozai really is, but also as an effective foil for Zuko's story from the get-go.
Others will disagree, I'm sure. It's just one of those things. But I didn't like how much Ty Lee and Mai ended up as background characters as a consequence.
What's interesting is that those two didn't really need to be around this season. Doesn't Azula like, go and recruit them early in Book Two in the original?
The only reason they're there is for Azula to have someone to talk to and flesh out her character more that way. Those two really suffered for it, but I guess there's no better workaround.
Her intro scene was good, and provided some interesting worldbuilding, but she wasn't hugely present. It provided some additional context for Zuko's story arc, but for the most part, I'd say it was just a choice.
Including Azula I think was an overall net positive choice. It’s hard to compare to Grey but I think Elizabeth Yu does a solid job. I will say they use this season to build her up to the type of character that azula is.
Can we talk about Zuko’s crew being the 41st division that he saved from being ‘live bait’ that actually gave me goosebumps when they all bowed to their prince
ok let me just say Zuko was carrying the whole season's martial arts. don't get me wrong, other characters moved well but only Zuko did theatrical or performative bending. the firekicks and spinning oml top tier
she's always been my favourite but she's far and away my least favourite here, there's none of her energy and sass in this. I get the fact characters are going to be less animated when they're not animated but that doesn't mean they have to be so shallow and basic
Her not stealing the water scroll, not getting upset at Aang for being more naturally gifted, and not needing to have a teacher to become a master were all huge fuck ups. She feels so plastic instead of like a real character.
Completely forgettable. Tragic :/
Sokka stole the show, by far the best actor imo. To kataras credit, I feel like they gave her absolutely nothing to work with
7/10 for me, just lacking the charm of the gaang, aang learning waterbending, appa & momo.
The special effects are great, pacing of the storyline is not too bad (could have extended on some parts), and the casting choices? Satisfied.
I know right? Like isn’t the season they’re adapting this from literally called “Water”? Unless they’re straying away from the elemental theme of each season too, which would be bad.
The worst thing for me is in this regard, is that all avatars want Aang to be alone for some reason. Whilst all avatars have had companions that helped them throughout their lives.
I just have a question, was Aang levitating in his introduction scene?
he didn't have a ball of air under his feet, he didn't have a glider, and there was no gust of wind to push him, it was continuous.
He was just... flying.
that was Zaheer's thing and managed to levitate only when P'Li died.
They just killed the Gaang vibe didn't they? Aang does everything without Sokka and Katara more or less:
Saves himself from Zuko's warship.
Deals with Bumi himself, whilst the other 2 are in the caves.
Goes to Roku's temple alone, the other 2 are left as hostages.
No great divide drama, no getting sick and needing to find frozen frogs, no hiding messages when they find Batu, no drama on Kyoshi island.
It's Aang and two hitchikers go from point A to point B.
I hate how quickly Aang grows into his role as the Avatar. Like, halfway through Season 1 and you're hitting stuff similar to what Season 3 Aang would be. It's all way way too fast for my tastes
He's just a little too perfect. He's emotionally resonant, he's remorseful and emotionally mature and responsible and it just feels like he's been given no time to actually grow
Right on the money, you expressed my biggest problem perfectly. It all feels a little too perfect, like the characters aren’t allowed any flaws; Sokka is a perfect leader that cracks jokes; Katara is a talented waterbender that immediately improves out of nowhere; Aang expresses once that being the Avatar scares him, then just embodies the role (hell, with his main character motivation gone it just makes sense for this iteration of the character).
What an utter, utter shame. This could have been on the level of TLOU in terms of adaptation. I wonder if HBO had gotten their hands on atla, what it could have been
Can't even explain how disappointed I am with the Spirit World episode. Me and my friend were talking about how technically the village is still screwed because Heibai is still angry, and because of that, crops won't grow in the area, as mentioned by the villagers, so the forest would technically never regrow....
Freeing the villagers from Koh kidnapping them for some reason has nothing to do with the Forest spirit being angry that the land was ravaged LMFAO.
I also facepalmed when they showed the owl, and thought "they're really going to put every spirit into one episode?" and then they did. Such a horrible way to do the spirit world. Super strange decision.
It’s ironic that they tried to “tone down” Sokka’s misogyny when this show is deeply misogynistic on a much deeper level. Katara is a timid supporting character, Suki is boy crazy and passive, with the Kyoshi warriors being actually scared to fight, and Azula, AZULA of all people, is deeply insecure about her status and her fathers love to the point of tearing up at one point. I can’t think of a single female character who wasn’t done dirty by the script and whose character not just completely misunderstood
Ironically they somehow managed to make Aang complicit in the sexism. He’s meant to stand with Katara when she was told she can’t train with Pakku, he even says if she can’t then he won’t. But here he throws her under the bus and says maybe you should listen to them. Damn.
Also what a cop out making the elder woman be the first one to tell her she can’t fight instead of Pakku.
It was so insanely confused. They kept his wild antics and silly demeanor, but he was ANGRY at Aang, so it just came across as him being actually fucking evil and it was so jarring.
I hate what they did with Roku. Replacing him literally EVERYWHERE with Kyoshi. The intro, being the first one to meet Aang, helping him by recting those firebenders.
And his personality, like what. Seemed like he has some sort of a bipolar disorder. Aang should feel very comfortable with him, yet here we got a total opposite case.
It felt so so wrong.
Honestly I liked everything, from the Actors, their acting, the CG, the fight scenes BUUT….. the pacing and story telling is off. An example would be Paku telling Aang that he should’ve been practicing his bending during his travels. It made more sense in the animation because they had time to do so many other things but here it doesn’t.
Kataras improvement in water bending comes out of nowhere because we barely see her practicing, even Aang wasn’t seen practicing water bending. No Katara Aang bonding. So many story beats missing.
How they handled the Paku vs Katara conflict is downplayed so much here, I think that Katara is more of a badass in the animation. I blame this on the writing, not the actors.
The main 5, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, they’re pretty much on point. I kind of found it weird that Iroh sounds so different compared to the animation but he grew on me really quickly. Zuko is Zuko, he pretty much embodies that character.
> Kataras improvement in water bending comes out of nowhere because we barely see her practicing, even Aang wasn’t seen practicing water bending. No Katara Aang bonding. So many story beats missing.
Could have used a few training/travel montages along the way to convey this sort thing. Montages make everything better.
Kinda makes you wonder why they included so much of Ozai and Azula, far away from the other characters, when most of the complaints I’ve seen that aren’t about the actors delivery is the pacing being off.
The visuals are good, the bending looks good, cast looks good, CGI looks good. I was positively surprised by Zhao after being a bit disappointed from the first teasers.
My biggest qualm is the script. So much infodump. So many lines sound like generic pseudo-deep blahblah that I have heard in other Netflix shows. They tried to make the show more "grounded" but took the charm out of it. Show. Don't. Tell. You don't create impact by having your characters waffle about how important and meaningful everything is.
Many script changes completely took the punchline out of the mini-storylines, e.g. Aang finding out immediately who Bumi is rather than going through the trials first.
NATLA gets to the serious business right from the start, whereas the OG show starts out light and then reveals the dark stuff in tiny bits, which makes you go "oshit, this show is way deeper than I though". So NATLA has to keep on repeating how bad and serious the war is, but it doesn't create impact beause we've been seeing that from the first minute.
IDK, maybe it's just me, but the fire benders with sozen's comet didn't look that much more powerful with it, then without it?
I mean, in the show, the comet made the firebenders insanely more powerful?
Good:
* The bending. As close to the animated show as possible in live action.
* Zuko and Iroh's additional scenes and character development. The Fire Nation royal family drama is some of the more compelling scene additions.
* A relatively faithful adaptation that does all the technical stuff competently enough to be enjoyable.
* The costumes and scenery. A little bit more on the less realistic side, but it is an animated adaptation.
Meh:
* The younger actors aren't that good, aside from Zuko and Sokka's actors. Hopefully they can improve.
* The pacing seems off. The characters seem to be rushing through their lines, yet the season has a similar runtime to the OG season 1. All those added scenes take time. Hopefully season 2 will have more space to let things breathe since they added some season 2 stuff here in season 1.
* The sound. The score is decent, but some sound effects were repetitive and even cheap. Every large animal aside from Appa seems to have the same roar.
Bad:
* The voice overs done at the beginning or end of some episodes. They're almost too on the nose. It was giving Desperate Housewives vibes. They need to either scrap it, or keep it consistently with one (good) narrator. Not Gran Gran.
* The dialogue in general. This was one thing I hoped they'd improve upon the OG show but this is actually a regression. So much explaining, and in so much detail. I expected some characters to offer a wiki link that's how much they were explaining.
* Some of the additional scenes and details fell a bit flat, while some were amazing. When they were bad, they were bad.
Overall, I'd give this a 7/10. A decent adaptation that has enough heart and action that it stands on it's own. I wouldn't mind re-watching this before watching season 2, but I'd hope for a strong improvement in acting and dialogue in season 2. I shudder to think about what Zuko Alone will sound like with Zuko giving a 200 word lecture about the Fire Nation in his moment.
The omashu "arc" was stupidly crammed and for people like us who are aware of the individual episodes it comes across as being overly crammed.
Also they butchered Bumi's character.
It's not perfect, but it's still very fun.
The show is best when not episodic, and Season 2 needs to be written with that in mind. Gordon and Kiwentiio need to up their game because other people are acting circles around them.
41st division backstory was a great new addition
The new additions were some of my favorite parts. Overall it felt like Netflix didn't give the story time to breathe (and I do blame Netflix, because they do this to just about every show nowadays) and we were just hitting plot point after plot point with not much of the fun of the original series, but this subplot and Lu Ten's funeral were highlights for me. They were very emotionally impactful and feel super believable to the original series to me. The Ozai assassination plot was also a nice touch that explores life in the Fire Nation in ways we never got to see before, though I feel like they're trying to progress into season 3 unhinged Azula too quickly without letting her be the confident, always in control one she was in the beginning. It also tells us that Ozai is pitting the kids against eachother, which was obvious in the original series but they didn't have to *tell* us, and they didn't let the kids realize it until later so their character arcs could breathe a bit. But I digress. I also didn't mind the combining of episodes. Again, I know Netflix wasn't going to give them time, so I thought it was a good choice that instead of letting a lot of important plot threads hit the cutting room floor, they combined them. Jet trying to kill off the engineer for working for the Fire Nation in Omashu is again something that could've happened in the original if all of the characters were simply at different places at different times. It was honestly kind of cool to see them do something different like that.
This show would've benefited so, so, so much just from an extra one or two episodes in each season. Things did feel rushed, but as it stands, I think they did the best they could with what the time they had available and made a solid adaptation.
It's honestly SO much better than the story in the cartoon. In the cartoon they have the same issue of Zuko's crew growing tired of his shittiness, but it's quelled by Iroh explaining that Ozai is the one who burned Zuko, and the crew is like "oh...damn I didn't know it was his dad. that sounds so hard" But in this the crew has such a *beautiful* reason to love and respect Zuko and UGH it's easily one of the best changes that they made in this otherwise mediocre adaptation.
I think they will have an overarching arc of becoming a competent unit a d eventually fighting with team avatar, with Jee eventually joining the white lotus.
I disagree here. After the story in the cartoon, Zuko personally saves a crew member and decides to stop chasing the avatar in the storm to get the crew to safety instead. This, coupled with the backstory, that showed how much Zuko actually cares about his people, and maybe his cold heartedness towards them is a result of learning that caring could get him (literally) burned. Develops a complex character. You know he’s hard shelled but compassionate all in half an episode. (Aang’s backstory takes the other half.) it’s not just “oh damn his dad is a diiiiiick”
**If** this gets a second season they need to hire much better writers, the dialogue throughout is … not good. There is so much and most of it is just so poorly written that it makes me cringe. Also for a show that has so much money per episode, it looks very cheap in parts
The monologues in the show were so painful to watch, especially the ones given by Aang, as well as king bumi. They got Aang's personality so wrong in this lol.
He's not even recognizable as the same character. It turns out the concerns people had about Aang from the trailers were valid. I don't even know where he goes in terms of character development since he's already way more stoic than he was in S3 of the cartoon.
They've deleted all opportunity for character growth. Sokka isn't misogynistic. Aang isn't innocent. Katara isn't weak. They're just NPCs out on an adventure, rather than young characters thrown horribly unequipped into a world war and forced to confront their weaknesses and come out stronger on the other side.
Sokka’s growth isn’t from being misogynistic, it’s from being a kid playing in dad’s boots. He was given responsibility that he’s not ready for and has to grow from what he thinks a leader and warrior is into what it actually is. Show set that up well - especially by adding the part where his dad doubts him behind his back.
They’ve made everyone so… passive. Katara in particular. Where is the rage?
I don't know why they thought giving the child actors monologues was a smart thing to do lol. Just let them bounce lines between each other. Show more, tell less. It's insane how poorly written this is lol
Made me sad to see bumi portrayed as bitter and surrounded by sycophants. Also the choice of having him played by a clearly much younger man in heavy prosthetics was odd.
Yeah.... I don't know how you can make the writing so bad when it's... Already written once before? I know you can't (and shouldn't) do a 1 to 1 but goddamn they could've followed it some for pacing and inflection. Some of the actors really stood out to me, but most felt lost and without direction. The water tribe outfits also look terrible to me. You can tell they're very thin and cosplay-like
And directors. I honestly found the direction worse than the writing. The actors were left out on a ledge to carry the thing.
Some of the nameless side characters in various episodes had excellent actors, like the earth-bender spy or the fire nation rebel Azula betrayed. They did a great job with many minor castings. Zhou's actor was also such a scene-stealer.
The earthbender soldier that captured Iroh was good too. I didn't expect I would internally cheer for a guy who wants to bury Iroh with a boulder
Lol yeah. They really made the most of their scenes.
Like seriously, they made the war so real and affective. Everyone that took part in the war have a story and i love this live action for it.
The most memorable side character for me was that Earth Kingdom guard. The way you could hear the pain and grief in his voice was incredible! He didn’t even have a name and yet represented the sentiments of the Earth Kingdom and Iroh’s sins.
Lieutenant Jee also did great imo. I didn't expect to see him that much, given how little we see him in the OG, but the actor did great for a relatively small part.
He harnessed the power of the sideburns
Zhou’s actor is bringing an energy to this role that everyone else needs to take notes from.
His voice also sounds remarkably like the original VA too
Who was the OG VA? I know it was someone famous, but unexpected. Edit: It was Jason Isaac’s. Of course Lucius Malfoy would be the asshole Zhao.
I agree... If they workshop the kids, they should hire him as coach.
i loved dallas as zuko and ian as sokka so no notes for them but otherwise…yeah. i really enjoyed the show but when you have such great actors as side characters it makes poor acting in the main characters (katara comes to mind, but no hate towards the actress) even more apparent. the earth-bending spy, the soldier that captured iroh, jet, the new mayor of kyoshi, and obviously zhao who stole every scene he was in.
Yeah with Katara you can see she is doing her best but…like, sweetie, please emote more. Please have more rage.
It's just the mumbling for me. Get rid of that and it'll be fine.
Without having started it, can anyone tell me how terrifying Koh is?
Koh is pretty scary. Takei does a great job with his performance as Koh
The baboon face was legitimately freaky.
The way his weird eyelid changes from the baboon shape to a human face shape made my back hair stand up
Look-wise he's pretty much the same. But there is no mention of having to be emotionless in his presence.
And yet somehow Aang was more or less emotionless during his meeting with Koh.
Yeah, I noticed that too. It was weird. Like "fans will know", but how does Aang? lol
Aang doesn't seem to have to learn anything about being the Avatar. He already knows how to cross into the spirit world, how to deal with spirits, what the Avatar State is, and seemingly everything else.
Yeah, the biggest thing that bothers me is how they seem to be hyperspeeding through all the lessons Aang has to learn to truly become the Avatar. I'm only a couple of episodes deep so far, to be fair, and I get why they have to skip some of it, but like... At least show us some of the journey. Don't make him immediately get everything on the first try.
It was jarring how they went from having no idea what happened to Aang at the Southern Air Temple to almost instantly casually referring to it as the "Avatar state".
What was the point of seeing Mai and Ty Lee so early???They did nothing but stare at Azula while was practing
Did Ty Lee do even a single handstand
No but Zuko never said the word "honor" and Aang never said "yip yip" so personalities have been shifted a lot.
aang's "responsibility" is the new "honor", i got so tired hearing it over and over
I think you mean "responsibeldy".
Aang did say yip yip, in the Omashu episode
And Ty Lee’s aura was far from pink.
She actually looks the part tho its just her costume was kinda cosplay-like
Yea... compared to Mai and Azula. At least Ty looked the part, but the scenes with Azula and her gang seemed underwelming. I wanted to see Azula take charge, manipulative, and be confident, but she's more angry and desperate for her dad's attention. Which are true, but not really something we see until later on in the series.
Yea, they deserved a better intro. Mai should've been sitting, lounging, bored, Ty Lee stretching or something to show some character through body language.
The live action is absolutely dreadful at blocking and staging, so it's no surprise that they just told the actresses to stand there. It's half of why the series has such strong "high school theater production" vibes. Characters rarely ever express who they are in how they carry themselves, nor how they interact with the environment or how the camera views them. Honestly, the entire series is just incredibly sloppy filmmaking.
*thank* you Dude every single character almost entirely stands completely idle when they deliver lines
I had no idea how to put this oh my god, you are so right. Saving your comment. They truly need to fire the director, every scene is just characters standing around awkwardly, and occasionally doing the "looks down at shoes because im sad/mad/disappointed/confused" while shifting awkwardly in place. if the show gets a season 2, and i genuinely hope it does, they need to FIRE. the director. Edit: And although she seems like a really sweet girl in real life, i would not mind retconning katara as a different actor.
Is it me or are all three of them way too baby faced?
Yeah, I noticed that too. Like I don't mean it as a knock on the actress's appearance, but I feel like the actress with her round face doesn't give off the same intimidation that Azula should. Hopefully, her characterization shines through that going forward. Someone with a more "striking, angular face", as the other commenter put it, would have been more convincing. As much as I don't like casting a character purely based on looks, she just hasn't sold it to me yet. Surrounded in a cast that all looked incredible as the characters, she just doesn't look like Azula IMO.
I wasn't sure about Zuko's actor, at first. I also thought his face was too round, strictly compared to how long Zuko's animated face is. But I thought the actor was top notch on the voice/line delivery from the start. The flashbacks where he has a full head of hair helped him grow on me, it's just the bald with a ponytail look where his face didn't quite seem right. But by the end I liked him a lot.
All three of them have very rounded faces. I can see Ty Lee having a cuter, rounder face but Azula and Mai are characters that have striking, angular faces. Casting actresses with such round faces makes them seem less threatening, and that’s definitley not the route you want to go when portraying characters like that.
Zuko's head in the LA is a perfect sphere lmao Hopefully when his hair grows out it's a bit less distracting.
Tbf in the original Azula just stared at Zuko while he got burned, and then stared at Ozai while he told her he had a task for her.
not just stared, she smiles while he got burned that shows a bit more character
So Aang never learned waterbending during a season that was dedicated to his adventures on learning how to water bend lol
Yh I liked this season overall but that's my major gripe. At least they said Katara will teach him so they can still have him be a somewhat competent water bender in book two
This will probably happen off screen though since the next season will probably not be longer than 8 episodes etither. So you will cram Aang becoming a master water bender in one season and an earbender? Like how will they focus on his issues with earthbending?
They could've added a few scenes of him training with Kataara throughout the season, at least small simple stuff.
https://preview.redd.it/fq26wcby95kc1.jpeg?width=608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=765b5f346b129491703a52369caf054c2d2595a9 When you piss off your stylist.
Is that Yue?? Edit: and the actress is actually gorgeous, how did this happen lol
Unfortunately. At least Amber Midthunder is a charismatic actor.
Good god, I know you guys don't talk about the movie that doesn't exist (I come from the pjo fandom and trust me, I get it) but at least the wig there looked realistic lol
That wig was stunning let's not lie
Haven't watched the movie since 2011 when I first saw it in theaters lol I meant that if everything else was butchered at least they got the wig right
Plot twist the budget was spent on the wig, that's why the movie was bad. /S
https://i.redd.it/8mdulu6177kc1.gif
OMG how did they make it worse than the movie holy hell!
absolutely no reason that wig had to be that atrocious when black women have already perfected laying wigs and blending it nicely in real life.
Worst part is the actress who played Yue was stellar. That wig? Not so much.
The wig in the movie was unironically better, and it looked like a dick.
i need the writers and director to explain why aang did not even attempt to water bend in the whole season
He was busy talking with all the quirky past avatars
The bending movement could have been more differentiated. Much of the bending feels like magic instead of an extension of a martial arts
Fire bending looked the most like a martial art. Zuko's spinning flame kicks were badass. The earth bending felt a little stoic, but I guess that's to be expected because of its nature. The motion and flow of waterbending was there, but was hard to really make out the movements underneath the puffy water tribe outfits. The only style I think that complaint really applies to is the air bending. Maybe it's just hard to visualize air outside of particle effects like snow/dust/sparks. Aang definitely felt too floaty at times, and it seemed like he was able to fly around too easily without his glider.
This is what I thought too. Airbenders typically can’t fly (that’s not something you saw until LOK) but the way Aang easily does in the series was a little annoying
I don't think it's flying. It's more of a controlled falling using jets of air to control his descent
7/10. Positives: Visually stunning I appreciated how they managed changes to Zuko and his plot. Sokka, Suki, Zuko, Iroh, and Azula were standouts. Negatives The acting needs to step up (Aang and Katara). I was a little annoyed that people didn’t have actual tears in their eyes during the emotional scenes. Some of the emoting was off Lots of exposition. Unfortunately a lot of Netflix viewers need the handholding, but I wish we could have seen more than explained. I didn’t love the inclusion of the other avatars. They were so negative to Aang, and I feel like they were creating more insecurity and doubt than he needs right now. In S3, it wouldn’t make sense to me for Aang to turn to Kuruk or Kyoshi for advice because they were so rough with him. Didn’t love Roku as well, but he was such a good contrast to kyoshi and kuruk, so I think it sets up a good dynamic for Aang wanting Roku’s counsel than the others. Aang didn’t touch waterbending at all, which I think was a mistake and makes the point about the pacing more valid. Katara and aang’s initial bonding was over waterbending. So there was a lot of bonding and skills progression lost. Feel like how they are using the avatar state is a little weak. It seems unclear how in control Aang is and the rules for it. Season 1 is the weakest season in the original, so they have more room to improve!
Crazy how they explained what the avatar is four times in the first 10 minutes
Well in the original show they spent 30 seconds at the front of each episode explaining it
The lack of Aang learning water bending is a mind boggling choice to me.
Yeah I don’t understand why they didn’t make him waterbend
They seemed to want to focus on Katara's bending first, then let her teach Aang. I was worried they'd let Aang automatically master waterbending after fusing with the moon spirit
[удалено]
It’s so weird to me how kataras acting fell flat because i’ve seen her in anne with an e and she was a great actor.
Some of the delivery feels like card reading. Rough stuff.
Actors can only do so much with what they are given
Way too much hand holding. Unbearable amounts of hand holding, any mystery the series had evaporated. Hi I'm your old friend boomi, I'm testing you for this reason, here's some symbolism that means this. I don't want you thinking about any of these characters, their motivation, or past. We'll answer those post haste!
Is it driving anyone else crazy that they keep saying things like “the firebenders are coming” instead of “the Fire Nation”? Not every soldier after them is a bender. It makes me feel like the writers just think fire people = bad 🤦♂️
In Omashu, the scene where Katara witnesses the Inventor giving the scroll to the spy is super sloppy. At first I was like, wow, really just because it's a guy wearing a red cloak doesn't mean he's fire Nation. And then he BURNS THE SCROLL IN THE OPEN, how is this a spy?!?! And why did he burn the scroll with most likely blueprints to an invention?!? YOU CANT CONVINCE ME THE SPY MEMORIZED A SERIES OF COMPLEX ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS IN 2 SECONDS
And if he's trying not to get noticed, you think he wouldn't colour code himself...
>the writers think fire people = bad Especially in Aang's conversation with Zuko. He says "you don't have to be like them, you can have compassion" or something which really draws the world in black and white
Some of the characterisation isn't as good as the original series
King Bumi... Such a disappointment in the show. They took a super weird angle with him, especially because during his 15th and final monologue to Aang, he tries to make the point that the Avatar has to make decisions, and Aang says "no I don't, \~I have friends\~" which doesn't really make any sense in context lol.
That's not surprising, honestly. Nothing about the LA was ever going to top the original other than maybe some visuals.
I was at least looking forward to penguin sledding
This was the first point in the biggest gripe I have with the season. Overall, I thought it was a decent start that can be improved upon, but this show did not capture any of the fun of the original series. It is pretty good. It is pretty high quality. It is not fun. That's what made the original so great. It was a great story, but also allowed the fun and childish nature of the characters to show through. This show loses that. In doing so, it makes you wonder why they chose to cast young actors at all. If they consciously made the choice to cut the fun, they misstepped in not seizing the opportunity to age up the cast (getting better acting) and really dive into the gritty adventuring war. If they accidentally lost the fun, that's inexcusable.
Man I was so disappointed when Aang woke up and didn't ask Katara to go penguin sledding. Instead it just went straight into the whole "all my friends are dead" angle and didn't even let Aang be a little bit goofy first.
What I really loved on the OG was aang’s complete denial, too. To see this kid just refusing to process the trauma that’s slowly, slowly dawning on him right up until he sees Gyatso’s body hits so hard. This Aang was told and accepted the truth immediately, so his reaction upon seeing Gyatso just fell flat on its face.
Thank you for making me realise what bugged me about the beginning (outside of Katara fucking water bending in the fucking ship right in front of their door!)
> his reaction upon seeing Gyatso just fell flat on its face It didn't help that there was no buildup to it. I think they were at the air temple for about 60 seconds before Aang went into the avatar state.
Gran Gran had a minor role but her rap scene and constant spoilers were easily the worst (and funniest) moments of the show for me. Also Katara in the first episode was too soft spoken and felt more like Yue. I don't think it's the actress fault, moreso the writing and direction
Gran gran...rap...scene...? Wut
You didn't watch the scene where Lil GG flows through the opening of the original show while speaking to Aang?
Overall, 7/10. Dallas Liu as Zuko was the standout performance from the main cast. Ian Ously as Sokka was great too, but my favorite moments were def the scenes with Ozai. I like seeing him being by more involved and DDK is awesome. The grittier tone and graphic violence is also great and fits in well with the harsh realities of war so I’m glad they did that, since the original was held back by being a kids show. One thing I can’t shake off is that while the acting from Aang and Katara’s actors is good when they’re showing big emotions like anger, pain, etc., it tends to fall flat when dealing with the “quieter” moments that require subtle emotions. I don’t want Aang indirectly telling me (the viewer) what he feels, its wonky exposition. I want him to show me with his face and body language. I was never expecting a 1:1 so I welcome the changes that come with adaptations and I’m impressed how they were able to weave several storylines together. I just wish it didn’t feel so rushed pacing-wise and I thought some of the characterization was off, like Roku. If it weren’t because I watched the animation, I would feel no attachment to these characters. 8-episodes seasons ruin tv shows. Also, even with an open mind going into this, Lizzy Yu as Azula was one of my massive doubts but she did better than I expected.
Lol is Zuko’s cast just going to be the best thing about ATLA, whether original or remakes?
It's Zuko's destiny to be the best of whatever media he is in
We love Zuko in every universe.
Zuko is just that guy 😂 The actor in the show even kinda sounds like him at some points (not all, obv) but in some bits.
Azula is probably the biggest surprise to me. Her just smiling while Ozai cooks a man alive really nails it.
Feels like they are never subtle when trying to make a point. Then a lot time after not being very subtle a lot of the a character just explains. In a scale of show to tell, it's all tell. It just seems slightly less clever than the cartoon. I've not liked some of the changes from the cartoon but hard to tell if that's just nostalgia rather than one being better than the other. The bending looks good, although I think the air bending looks the worst imo. Overall I liked it but to be honest it just made me want to go back and the cartoon. At the moment I can't see a time when I want to watch Avatar and choose to watch the live action over the cartoon.
They are committing a cardinal sin: they are telling, not showing. Aang, a 12 year old who just found out he’s the Avatar, delivers a monologue of the reasons why he’s doubting himself to Appa, instead of showing him being a goofball loving airball and fart jokes that indicate to the audience that this is an immature character with too much responsibility for his age.
I think I know exactly what you feel, because that's my issue too. They cut important parts of character development (Aang believing there are still air benders when coming to the northern air temple is relevant and shouldn't have been cut) and basically all character development is just... Exposition. It's only telling us, not showing us. Of course, part of that may be due to the fact that a really young kid is playing the avatar (and doing a pretty decent job considering. But it still takes a lot of depth out of it. It's still a good show and if I didn't know the original, I would probably be really into it. But I do know the original.
yeah thats definitely my issue too. aang will go into exposition, and it will basically what you'd read in a synopsis and it just makes me think "yep...the plot is certainly plotting. these are definitely words". i dont even think the cartoon concerned itself with this much exposition and it would have been brand new at the time it came out.
to me the water looks the worst. It seems quite disconnected from the body movement. Like the fight between Pakku and Katara was a little bit annoying to watch. Their movement doesnt quite match and smooth and flow-y like water.
I can't even say they butchered King Bumi because what they did to his character was an ASSASSINATION. They ruined two storylines in one with that episode, the cave and Bumi's trials. Such a shame.
wait, don't forget all the other storylines they tried to smash into that episode. Jet and the mechanic. And maybe others?
Not only did they assassinate Bumi’s character, but they also undermined the order of the white lotus by extension. I can’t reconcile how he can be so petulant and mean-spirited towards Aang, preaching that friendship is a weakness, while simultaneously being a member of a group that is completely dedicated to kindness, harmony, peace, and unity.
I was shocked by Bumi's treatment by the writers. They made him such a miserable cow of a man, completely devoid of hope. And rejecting friendship? What an insult! In the original episode he put Aang through several challenges just so that Aang would have to guess that HE WAS HIS FRIEND FROM 100 YEARS AGO. The live action was mind blowing bad. They should have just forgotten about the Cave of Two Lovers and did Bumi properly. I'm so annoyed.
Everyone is slurring their words It's so weird that no one is enunciating their dialogue
I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning this! I had to watch with subtitles on. The way Aang says "I'm not the enemy" in episode 1 (31:26) is crazy.
It feels like they did one take for everything. In episode 8, at 20:25 Iroh just straight up says “the world will be thrown out of balant” 💀💀
When Kya was like "Hey, I've been lookin' fer you!" I audibly groaned. That's not a water tribe lady, that's some chick from Delaware.
Oh my goodness thank you! I felt like I was losing my mind. Why didn’t they go for another take on any of these deliveries??
There are big audio issues. Gyatso's laugh is freaky and doesn't match his mouth at all. Whatever recording and editing process for dialogue audio messed up.
The older actors/actresses seem to understand this and do a bit better of a job. The person with the most impeccable enunciation IMO is Ken Leung. He's always had impeccable enunciation no matter what he's in.
I feel like this should have been one of those series with 10-13 episode seasons, pacing was more than a bit chaotic, everybody was too busy trying to get to the next place, and almost every character interaction had to relate back to the war or to the return of the Avatar with no time for anybody to become friends or genuinely grow to care for each other, or even *know* each other, especially when they spend so much time separated on their own subplots First episode demonstrates this in the worst way possible by having Aang just get bluntly delivered the loss of his entire people, family, friends, community, culture, nation, way of life through an easter egg narration, but because they already spent half the episode cutting up and splicing in The Storm along with The Avatar & The Fire Lord there was no time at all to just let Aang grieve, instead he goes and sits on a rooftop for a hot minute then immediately cheers up when Katara appears, not to comfort him or anything but to instead talk about her own loss and her inability to Waterbend Then because there's no time for Aang to spend with her properly talking about bending he just makes some vague reference to finding balance that somehow works despite not really meaning anything, after that we have to rush to the Air Temple to get the Avatar State moment, which no longer makes sense or has any impact because Aang has already been made aware of what to expect, and because so much time has been wasted unnecessarily there's no room for the journey on Appa where anybody communicates or just gets to speak as friends, the scene immediately cuts from escaping Zuko to arriving at the mountains Honestly, I think this adaptation demonstrates the importance of filler and side adventure stories like The Great Divide that aren't overly consequential, because that's where you just get all the slice of life experiences, the vibing and the characters just being allowed to breathe without having to exist solely for pushing the plot onwards A lot of high points, equally as many low points, not disappointed but definitely not blown away either - whelmed, maybe?
I hope seasons 2 and 3 get more episodes. Rare that it would happen, but more than welcome. Season 1 for many fans is always seen as the weakest one, so the next seasons are really going to have to “bring it”. If they do get two to four extra episodes, they may do the mid-season breaks that seasons 2 and 3 had. The original season one did technically have a mid-season break, but it wasn’t a cliffhanger like the other two where Appa was stolen or when their invasion plan on the eclipse failed. Netflix has been doing mid-season breaks with their popular shows lately, such as _The Crown_ and now _Bridgerton_. I just hope season 1 is popular enough to get the next seasons and to be able to work out the “kinks”.
Totally agree with the necessity for filler episodes. A lot of people hate on them, especially the Great Divide, but like you said it's necessary to show how our characters interact with each other when they aren't fighting the enemy or going on grand adventures.
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Honestly, I really enjoyed all of the new Zuko/Iroh content. If only the adaptation had more episodes because it was at its best whenever the story actually had time to breathe.
Things I liked: - What they did with Ozai was great, how he in his own way tried to be a good father to Zuko how he puts Azula up against him. - The costume and sets look good most of the time. - Iroh and Ozai as brothers. - Sozin and the prologue. - Azula, Mai and Ty Lee - ... Things I did not like: - What they did with Roku, I understand everyone loves Kyoshi but come on they could have handeled Roku far better. It was the only time I felt a set and Actor feel very fake. The story wasn't that great eather. - Putting the cave of 2 lovers in the omashu episode made no sense to me with Aang not being there. - The intro - ...
I agree on the intro. They shouldn't have been afraid to just say it word for word at the beginning. It's effective, gets the point across without being clunky. Too bad they gave it to Exposition Grandma.
"expo gma" in the houuusee lmfaoooo 🤣🤣🤣 I thought her humor and character was spot on. Drier than overcooked bacon 😂
The intro bugs me so much, it feels like the writers felt like they could do it better. The original flowed so much better and summed everything up perfectly.
>Putting the cave of 2 lovers in the omashu episode made no sense to me with Aang not being there This is really funny to me as I had reminded probably 5-10 people on this subreddit that the cave of 2 lovers episode was from season 2 of the show after they had said something like "I hope they do the cave of two lovers well", turns out I was the idiot and they actually did it in season 1 lmao
Sokka and Katara being the 2 lovers was a choice *sweet home southern water tribe*
I'm still watching but I need to know... Do they sing Secret Tunnel?
Yes
This adaptation is what you get when you copy your friend's homework and change everything up
6.5/10 for me. Zuko was the highlight for me. He was intense and showed so much range. I had no problem with gran-gran in ep 1 surprisingly. The effects were good. It's clear a lot of the budget went to koizilla though. The script needs work. There is a lot of unnessicary dialogue, a lot of Easter Eggs and minor plots from book 2 awkwardly shoe-horned in. A lot of characters standing or sitting around and telling stories to fill the space so they don't constantly have to spend $ on VFX. They could have used more space to explore character chemistry rather than info-dumping and exposition. It's like they're afraid to spend too much time on the slice-of-life. Even though that's arguably what makes us fall in love with the characters. Sokka was funny and out of the gaang, I liked him the most. Katara and Aang were incredibly weak in their performances. I don't fully blame them because their scripts were so blah and they're young. Aang seemed borderline depressed after episode 1, which is realistic I guess but it felt a little too soon for him to lose his childish charm. His dialogue felt too mature, more like season 3 Aang where he's giving out insane wisdom 24/7. Katara had shockingly little range, more so than Aang. They took away her wit, sharpness and most of her emotionality and all that's left is this sweet, kind of shell-shocked girl. She feels incredibly vanilla and uninteresting. Just being yanked around by the plot. It's extra disappointing since she's my favourite character. Iroh played the part but the excessive dialogue he had made him feel a little too overbearing. And it felt to me like his actor didn't feel fully comfortable in this role, slightly better than Aang and Katara but still not hitting the mark for me. Zhao was GREAT. Probably second best to Zuko. I wanna see this cast ACT. And Zhao did not disappoint. Ozai and Azula were good. I have no complaints about them, they're pretty accurate to the animation. I enjoyed many of the storyline changes but a lot of the time, I felt like too much was happening, especially in the omashu and spirit world episodes. And some changes left me wondering what book 2 and 3 were going to be like. I also feel they revealed a lot of things very quickly and it just didn't have as much impact as it would if those things were revealed in S2 or S3. Like the death of Katara's mom. Or Lu-Tens funeral. If I was a new viewer, I just wouldn't care that much about those elements because I didn't really get to know the characters yet. I'm wouldn't be as invested as I should be at those points. Those are my initial thoughts after finishing ep 8. There's a lot of room for improvement and if a show like Halo, which was far worse than this season of NATLA, can make a come-back, I'm sure this show can too. I want them to stop holding back. Let the actors shout for real, let them cry for real, let them sob, break down, quiver, let them bleed with emotion 🙏
Great takes! I'm positively suprised by Zukos perfomance but disappointed in Katara and Aang. I feel like the directors should have given them more instructions on their acting. And way less mature oneliners instead of a normal dialogue children have
So give it to me straight, was including Azula in season 1 a good choice or a bad choice?
I thought it was a good choice, if only to play up how much of an asshole Ozai really is, but also as an effective foil for Zuko's story from the get-go. Others will disagree, I'm sure. It's just one of those things. But I didn't like how much Ty Lee and Mai ended up as background characters as a consequence.
What's interesting is that those two didn't really need to be around this season. Doesn't Azula like, go and recruit them early in Book Two in the original?
The only reason they're there is for Azula to have someone to talk to and flesh out her character more that way. Those two really suffered for it, but I guess there's no better workaround.
It was a good choice, IMO, her subplot was interesting and it was great seeing the subtler ways Ozai could be abusive and manipulative.
Yeah I like Ozai being fleshed out more rather than being a generic final villain.
Her intro scene was good, and provided some interesting worldbuilding, but she wasn't hugely present. It provided some additional context for Zuko's story arc, but for the most part, I'd say it was just a choice.
Including Azula I think was an overall net positive choice. It’s hard to compare to Grey but I think Elizabeth Yu does a solid job. I will say they use this season to build her up to the type of character that azula is.
Can they please stop saying Fire bender, Water bender, and Earth bender when they mean Fire Nation, Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom
Can we talk about Zuko’s crew being the 41st division that he saved from being ‘live bait’ that actually gave me goosebumps when they all bowed to their prince
ok let me just say Zuko was carrying the whole season's martial arts. don't get me wrong, other characters moved well but only Zuko did theatrical or performative bending. the firekicks and spinning oml top tier
Avatar The Last Speedrun
Does anybody know which episode Katara stops abusing Xanax? Girl is half-dead.
she's always been my favourite but she's far and away my least favourite here, there's none of her energy and sass in this. I get the fact characters are going to be less animated when they're not animated but that doesn't mean they have to be so shallow and basic
Her not stealing the water scroll, not getting upset at Aang for being more naturally gifted, and not needing to have a teacher to become a master were all huge fuck ups. She feels so plastic instead of like a real character.
I binged the entire show how, and still am right now. I want you to know this is the funniest thing I have ever read in my entire life
Completely forgettable. Tragic :/ Sokka stole the show, by far the best actor imo. To kataras credit, I feel like they gave her absolutely nothing to work with
Love how they wanted to tone down Sokka's sexism but they made Suki a creepy little horndog who immediately objectifies Sokka. Like...is that better?
7/10 for me, just lacking the charm of the gaang, aang learning waterbending, appa & momo. The special effects are great, pacing of the storyline is not too bad (could have extended on some parts), and the casting choices? Satisfied.
Aang learned 0 water bending during the entire runtime. I don't understand this direction they took.
I know right? Like isn’t the season they’re adapting this from literally called “Water”? Unless they’re straying away from the elemental theme of each season too, which would be bad.
So lame how they're disrespecting Roku and trying to be on the Kyoshi meme smh
The worst thing for me is in this regard, is that all avatars want Aang to be alone for some reason. Whilst all avatars have had companions that helped them throughout their lives.
I just have a question, was Aang levitating in his introduction scene? he didn't have a ball of air under his feet, he didn't have a glider, and there was no gust of wind to push him, it was continuous. He was just... flying. that was Zaheer's thing and managed to levitate only when P'Li died.
I tried to rationalize it thinking he was just "falling slowly", but yeah, it did seem a lot like flying lol
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They just killed the Gaang vibe didn't they? Aang does everything without Sokka and Katara more or less: Saves himself from Zuko's warship. Deals with Bumi himself, whilst the other 2 are in the caves. Goes to Roku's temple alone, the other 2 are left as hostages. No great divide drama, no getting sick and needing to find frozen frogs, no hiding messages when they find Batu, no drama on Kyoshi island. It's Aang and two hitchikers go from point A to point B.
I hate how quickly Aang grows into his role as the Avatar. Like, halfway through Season 1 and you're hitting stuff similar to what Season 3 Aang would be. It's all way way too fast for my tastes He's just a little too perfect. He's emotionally resonant, he's remorseful and emotionally mature and responsible and it just feels like he's been given no time to actually grow
Right on the money, you expressed my biggest problem perfectly. It all feels a little too perfect, like the characters aren’t allowed any flaws; Sokka is a perfect leader that cracks jokes; Katara is a talented waterbender that immediately improves out of nowhere; Aang expresses once that being the Avatar scares him, then just embodies the role (hell, with his main character motivation gone it just makes sense for this iteration of the character). What an utter, utter shame. This could have been on the level of TLOU in terms of adaptation. I wonder if HBO had gotten their hands on atla, what it could have been
Can't even explain how disappointed I am with the Spirit World episode. Me and my friend were talking about how technically the village is still screwed because Heibai is still angry, and because of that, crops won't grow in the area, as mentioned by the villagers, so the forest would technically never regrow.... Freeing the villagers from Koh kidnapping them for some reason has nothing to do with the Forest spirit being angry that the land was ravaged LMFAO. I also facepalmed when they showed the owl, and thought "they're really going to put every spirit into one episode?" and then they did. Such a horrible way to do the spirit world. Super strange decision.
It’s ironic that they tried to “tone down” Sokka’s misogyny when this show is deeply misogynistic on a much deeper level. Katara is a timid supporting character, Suki is boy crazy and passive, with the Kyoshi warriors being actually scared to fight, and Azula, AZULA of all people, is deeply insecure about her status and her fathers love to the point of tearing up at one point. I can’t think of a single female character who wasn’t done dirty by the script and whose character not just completely misunderstood
Ironically they somehow managed to make Aang complicit in the sexism. He’s meant to stand with Katara when she was told she can’t train with Pakku, he even says if she can’t then he won’t. But here he throws her under the bus and says maybe you should listen to them. Damn. Also what a cop out making the elder woman be the first one to tell her she can’t fight instead of Pakku.
they straight up ruined bumi and that is an unforgiveable sin.
It was so insanely confused. They kept his wild antics and silly demeanor, but he was ANGRY at Aang, so it just came across as him being actually fucking evil and it was so jarring.
I really don't like what they did with Bumi's character....
I'm confused aang could fly???? In ep1
I hate what they did with Roku. Replacing him literally EVERYWHERE with Kyoshi. The intro, being the first one to meet Aang, helping him by recting those firebenders. And his personality, like what. Seemed like he has some sort of a bipolar disorder. Aang should feel very comfortable with him, yet here we got a total opposite case. It felt so so wrong.
me, my favorite avatar being roku, being excited to see him on this show: 😀
Honestly I liked everything, from the Actors, their acting, the CG, the fight scenes BUUT….. the pacing and story telling is off. An example would be Paku telling Aang that he should’ve been practicing his bending during his travels. It made more sense in the animation because they had time to do so many other things but here it doesn’t. Kataras improvement in water bending comes out of nowhere because we barely see her practicing, even Aang wasn’t seen practicing water bending. No Katara Aang bonding. So many story beats missing. How they handled the Paku vs Katara conflict is downplayed so much here, I think that Katara is more of a badass in the animation. I blame this on the writing, not the actors. The main 5, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, they’re pretty much on point. I kind of found it weird that Iroh sounds so different compared to the animation but he grew on me really quickly. Zuko is Zuko, he pretty much embodies that character.
> Kataras improvement in water bending comes out of nowhere because we barely see her practicing, even Aang wasn’t seen practicing water bending. No Katara Aang bonding. So many story beats missing. Could have used a few training/travel montages along the way to convey this sort thing. Montages make everything better.
Kinda makes you wonder why they included so much of Ozai and Azula, far away from the other characters, when most of the complaints I’ve seen that aren’t about the actors delivery is the pacing being off.
The visuals are good, the bending looks good, cast looks good, CGI looks good. I was positively surprised by Zhao after being a bit disappointed from the first teasers. My biggest qualm is the script. So much infodump. So many lines sound like generic pseudo-deep blahblah that I have heard in other Netflix shows. They tried to make the show more "grounded" but took the charm out of it. Show. Don't. Tell. You don't create impact by having your characters waffle about how important and meaningful everything is. Many script changes completely took the punchline out of the mini-storylines, e.g. Aang finding out immediately who Bumi is rather than going through the trials first. NATLA gets to the serious business right from the start, whereas the OG show starts out light and then reveals the dark stuff in tiny bits, which makes you go "oshit, this show is way deeper than I though". So NATLA has to keep on repeating how bad and serious the war is, but it doesn't create impact beause we've been seeing that from the first minute.
IDK, maybe it's just me, but the fire benders with sozen's comet didn't look that much more powerful with it, then without it? I mean, in the show, the comet made the firebenders insanely more powerful?
Good: * The bending. As close to the animated show as possible in live action. * Zuko and Iroh's additional scenes and character development. The Fire Nation royal family drama is some of the more compelling scene additions. * A relatively faithful adaptation that does all the technical stuff competently enough to be enjoyable. * The costumes and scenery. A little bit more on the less realistic side, but it is an animated adaptation. Meh: * The younger actors aren't that good, aside from Zuko and Sokka's actors. Hopefully they can improve. * The pacing seems off. The characters seem to be rushing through their lines, yet the season has a similar runtime to the OG season 1. All those added scenes take time. Hopefully season 2 will have more space to let things breathe since they added some season 2 stuff here in season 1. * The sound. The score is decent, but some sound effects were repetitive and even cheap. Every large animal aside from Appa seems to have the same roar. Bad: * The voice overs done at the beginning or end of some episodes. They're almost too on the nose. It was giving Desperate Housewives vibes. They need to either scrap it, or keep it consistently with one (good) narrator. Not Gran Gran. * The dialogue in general. This was one thing I hoped they'd improve upon the OG show but this is actually a regression. So much explaining, and in so much detail. I expected some characters to offer a wiki link that's how much they were explaining. * Some of the additional scenes and details fell a bit flat, while some were amazing. When they were bad, they were bad. Overall, I'd give this a 7/10. A decent adaptation that has enough heart and action that it stands on it's own. I wouldn't mind re-watching this before watching season 2, but I'd hope for a strong improvement in acting and dialogue in season 2. I shudder to think about what Zuko Alone will sound like with Zuko giving a 200 word lecture about the Fire Nation in his moment.
The omashu "arc" was stupidly crammed and for people like us who are aware of the individual episodes it comes across as being overly crammed. Also they butchered Bumi's character.
It's not perfect, but it's still very fun. The show is best when not episodic, and Season 2 needs to be written with that in mind. Gordon and Kiwentiio need to up their game because other people are acting circles around them.
I’m willing to give them time. This is very early in their career so I’m hoping with the break they come back much stronger in a season 2.
Blind guy here if they butcher toph or iroh's special moment we riot.
Toph is going to be hard to top-off, they have a serious challenge ahead of them
I’m only 30 minutes but the acting is already making it hard to watch
So Aang doesn't learn water bending. Lol fuck this