A Painfully Honest Review of Netflix Avatar

George Takei didn't reprise his role as Koh, that wasn't his role in the original, he played the Prison Warden on that Earthbender Metal Barge.

One day, executives will learn that it's actually MORE risky to adapt/remake a successful story than it is to adapt/remake a middling one.

My kids got bored with the live-action show after 2-3 episodes, and now we’re half-way through a re-watch of the original series. Silver linings. ✌️

I'd argue Sokka's initial sexism was ALSO because he was a child playing at pre-mature 'man-hood' because he'd been forced to take that role because his father was taken away from him by war. War had more fucking impacts than "cool battles" which they forgot to make a dumb opening fight.

So fun easter egg: in the original show it's implied that nobody can see airbending. The air blasts and stuff are just visual for the audience. There's a line Xin Fu and the Boulder. Where thr Boulder states he saw no bending from Aang and that Toph must've taken a dive and split the money with him. This alludes to the fact that even in universe, nobody can see air

Katara in this show got hit the worst with the writing of all the characters. She is so passive and basically nothing like her animated counterpart.

The largest crime here is killing the character development. Aang was running away from his responsibilities as the avatar; Sokka was sexist and naive; katara was hot headed and reckless at times. Characters with struggles who learned and grew was what made the show so impactful to begin with, and that’s been thrown out the window.

The producers had originally said that they were, quote, "trying to appeal to Game of Throne's fans" with this new adaptation, so when Sokka and Katara entered the Secret Tunnel instead of Aang and Katara and the hippies started singing about love, I thought Sweet Home Alabama was about to start playing as the intro music for Cersei and Jamie Lannister.

one of my favorite advices for writing is the bigger the tragedy, the less you show. that's why the air temple scene in the cartoon was so impactful. not just the tonal shift but it left a lot to the audience's imagination of how and why this genocide happened and the more we find out throughout the show, the worse it gets. especially when we are shown multiple times through Aang and his flashbacks that airbenders are pacifists

Ironically, Sokka's portrayal in the original Avatar actually feels really damn progressive once all is said and done, even by today's standards. A guy that grew up with a limited world view but doesn't grow to resent the outside world, instead adapting to become a strong leader is something you rarely see nowadays. And that's an important thing to show, that it takes a lot more strength to admit that you're wrong, than to stand by what you already believe.

This is another great example of "probably would've been alright if it wasn't a beloved property."

I disagree on one point: they didn't nail it with Iroh. In the cartoon, we gradually learned that he's not a senile oaf. It was hinted at through mention of his past accomplishments and his nickname as the "Dragon of the West", but he was often playing the fool or BEING the fool (e.g. the poison tea). This made an excellent foil to Zuko's tunnel vision for his perceived destiny. At first we as the audience think Iroh is urging Zuko to stop and smell the roses because he's tired and lazy. I remember thinking as a kid that Iroh was part of Zuko's punishment; he's banished AND saddled with his crazy old uncle. We steadily come to learn that he's just trying his best to make Zuko see he can be so much more than a ruthless warrior prince without giving him the answers, like any good teacher. We see his depth a little at a time, and we really see how Iroh has already lived a full life and learned many lessons before the show even started. He doesn't grow much over the course of the series, but our perception of him changes so drastically it feels like one of the greatest transformations of any character. To make it even better, we're learning about this new side of Iroh right alongside Zuko. With a few exceptions, we experience Iroh almost exclusively through Zuko's lost and chaotic POV. Much like Aang and Sokka, live action Iroh starts out as the Iroh of the cartoon's finale. Live action Iroh speaks like a charismatic war hero from the beginning. He has a big Action Hero Voice that demands respect, and he's always saying exactly what he means. His credibility is never in question, either. Instead of seeing Zuko and Iroh as equally dysfunctional opposites at first, we're shown right away that Iroh is the mature one and Zuko is childish if he ever ignores him. Zuko never bemoans Iroh for speaking in riddles, which went such a long way in capturing what's it's like to grow up-- as a kid, our elders' advice is often hard to take at face value until you learn what they were trying to tell you from experience. THAT is the most rewarding part of Zuko & Iroh's relationship: Iroh tried and tried to show Zuko that he doesn't need to be his father's perfect son, but it doesn't really sink in until Zuko's been accepted back into the fold at the beginning of Book 3. Iroh & Zuko's reunion has such a great payoff because Iroh not being mad at Zuko for how he treated him is the final nail in the coffin for Zuko's preconceived notion of family. There isn't much growth to be had in live action Zuko & Iroh's dynamic, because Iroh is already someone that you'd be stupid to not take at face value at all times (which you can, because he's always speaking literally).

You forgot to mention how we cannot tell the difference between normal fire bending and Sozin's comet-enhanced firebending. The original made a big deal of how overwhelming firebending gets during the comet, but here in the Netflix version, the comet didn't really give much to the firebenders other than allowing them to fly.

What made Sokka's flaws compelling was that there was a very clear through line of why he thought that way to begin with. He was the only boy anywhere near adulthood left in his tribe and told it was his job to protect the women while the adult men were away fighting. His whole identity and sense of worth is bound up in being the protector and it results in him starting off in a regressive mindset. But then when he meets Suki and realizes she is legitimately a better warrior than him, rather than retreating further into his biases he apologizes to her and begs her to train him because ultimately he realizes he cares more about being able to protect the people who he cares about than he does his own pride. Sokka's growth into a genuine leader who is able to assess people's strengths and weaknesses - including his own - is up there fighting with Zuko's as the most compelling arc of the entire series.

I had to drop it 20 minutes in, when Aang is venting to Appa and he starts saying “I like having fun! I’m a goofy wacky kid!” Instead of… just showing us… he’s like that? Yeah I can’t stand this type of writing.

My main problem with the series is quite ironically that it somehow actually feels like the theater play that the Gang saw in season 3. They saw themselves be portrayed and over exaggarated but yet, at the same time polished. The characters in that play said all of their emotional baggage and their hopes and dreams in such an abundantly upfront way that it was clear to the viewer, that it was meant to sound ridiculous. The characters in the live action series aren't, as you said, put in situation where they play the characters but rather explain themselves as a whole in form clumsy monologues with tears and emotional music. That doesn't build tension or mystique. Also not letting the viewer know the characters whole backstory in the cartoon series was pretty nice because when the episode with Aangs and Zukos backstory dropped I was hooked.

M. Night was a big victim, but I disagree on him being the biggest. That, imo, would go to Noah Ringer, who played Aang in the film. Because apparently, the Avatar fandom hadn't learned from the Star Wars fandom that maybe you shouldn't bully the child actor playing a lead character en masse. The way he was being treated ultimately drove him out of acting just as his story was beginning. I hope he's doing better now, wherever he is.

One thing I think was really missing from Katara's personality was that, KATARA WAS SARCASTIC TOO!!!! Not as much as sokka obviously but it was there!!

Netflix did such a good job remaking The Last Airbender by M Night Shyamalan

I really wish they had put in the line of "YOU STILL HAVE MUCH TO LEARN, AND PAIN WILL BE YOUR TEACHER" during the agni kai with Zuko and his father. Showed how brutal Ozai was, even with family.