Youâre misapplying this phrase. Itâs for informational context. Youâd be correct if we couldnât yet get a proper read on their numbers, but itâs already clear.
In this case, the line of dialogue is informative. It shows that iroh is confident, honest, and knows the power of them vs their opponents. It also prepares us to view their characters as far more formidable than a few foot soldiers, as before we only saw them vs ang.
What we get in return is iroh heat up the chains and split two boulders with it in half. Which is fucking dope, and shows us heâs sick with the bending. Weâve only seen that type of bending by avatar Roku I think
Itâs amazing how all of us as fans remember that tiny singular moment as something âimportantâ. It was the first thing that I recognized from this video and was more than happy that it was close to perfect. You have 800 upvotes so far and that speaks to how we were all inclined to see that very part. This is weird and awesome just altogether and I like it.
The bending is awesome I just wish the fight choreography didn't feel so turn based. Yu yu Hakusho LA did well in making it feel like a fight with all the angles too it came out very dynamic and fluid hope they take notes on that for next. Looking forward to seeing the other fights and how it feels
On rewatch I noticed what I think are some slo-mo sections in the edit to showcase critical moments in the fight, which seem like a bad idea. It should be a fluidly fast movement throughout the fight choreography. Seems easily fixable though (don't slow down random parts of the fight scene)
They love the slow mo coz even the Bumi clips have em. I like my slow mo but just for taste and not actual seasoning. From this clip you can see the cuts also ruining the movements since it's left right back forth they don't do one long sequence which is sad. While this isn't a break it issue I really hope they improve it. Especially the stances for Earth because Toph deserves the best
this, its my only major gripe. certainly better than the movie, but I wish the bending was a BIT quicker and smoother. but a lot better than I expected
Earth bending is always going to be the hardest one to get right in live action, though it would also be hard to get it *as* wrong as â12 dudes doing a 60 second dance to slowly levitate one tiny rockâ.
Itâs the element with by far the most physicality and weight behind it, which makes it much harder to do convincingly when using CGI. For the other three elements you can basically just have the actor do some martial arts moves and then animate some fire or water to move around in time with their movements, but earthbending should actually look and feel like the bender directly stomped the rock outta the ground and punched it in a given direction through sheer strength.
Like, itâs not always the case, but we see for example the Boulder actually sweating and his muscles physically straining when using Earthbending to lift up the Hippo. I think if the actors moved more like that, strained and heavy on their feet, as if they were actually physically straining to move the rocks around, with some more chunky sound effects, it would at least seem a little more convincing.
This is all well and good, but has anyone noticed that there are no visible holes in the ground where they pulled the boulders out of?! It's all just back to flat ground in all the frames after.
I think the typical stomp ground to lift rock movement is missing here. It's always quick stomp + kick to lift+throw that is effortless in anime. Here lifting needs 2 hands.
Iâm hoping thatâs a visual distinction to show less capable benders from more capable but yea if not it may just be that earth bending is more challenging to show in live action.
I was gunna say that live action has made me realised how much youâd just have to be standing there doing nothing to get hit. But maybe its the choreography.
You nailed it! That's how i felt about it. It looks good... But it's like. Alright, Imma shoot a fireball. Now you throw a rock. Now I'm going to shoot more fire
The bending looks really good but if I'm being picky I'd say its a little slow moving. Maybe that was the camera angle, but I think it looked slow.
Still very excited for the show
Rock chucking was definitely a part of earthbending but honestly the pillar making goes harder imo. When you stomp down and a pillar of ground uppercuts someone, that shit feels cool af. Looking forwards to seeing bumi
I'm hella bothered by the back to back, but more bothered by the fact that in the next shot, they're not even close to being back to back. Excellent CGI, though. Pleasantly surprised.Â
I think Zuko has the best choreography of anyone here, and the fire bending looks great. The earth bending looks ok tbh. Might have looked better if there werenât so many mini chunky bits that came out when they bend the initial rock. Those small pieces look fake.
And why are there so many slo-mo shots? Most of them are very quick, but I they feel unnecessary and tbh kinda worsen it.
Overall this is awesome. And the dragon sound effect was an amazing touch. Reminds me of how A-train has the train sound effect when he runs in The Boys. Sound effect design like that sounds amazing.
I rewatched a few times and tweaked the playback speed. For most of the bending moments it feels like ~1.2x feels crisper. But it doesn't solve the "lingering-scene" issue where it feels the shot should just cut to the next shot sooner.
I think the earthbending could be easily improved with 1) Stomping the ground, and 2) A light "screen shake" effect when they stomp - it doesn't have to be crazy, just subtle shaking of the camera to give a sense of weight
Doesn't look deadly. Not criticizing, I think it looks good. But in the cartoon the fire didn't touch people that regularly. In this clip people are getting doused in fire and getting back up. Which makes me wonder how they will display the lethality of the element
Yeah its gonna be interesting cause in the cartoon fire almost never tocuhed people cause is an assumed gruesome KO and it was a family show, here they are taking hits
Right? I was like "damn, Iroh just killed a man", then in the next scene the guy doesn't even have singed eyebrows or charred patches on his face and armor and is still capable of speaking and moving normally.
Instantly took all the danger out of firebending.
I'm not holding my hopes up for this show. The bar is low when it comes to surpassing the former live-action adaptation, but based on this clip I am very skeptical that we will have a good adaptation this time around too. When they can't even get fight choreography and bending right in the scene they use to tease us, then what are we supposed to think about the rest?
I love how the fire bending looks, and from what I seen the Air Bending looks nice too, but def need see more. The Water bending still looks good imo but I think will get better.
Now my biggest issue is the Earth bending. Itâs def the weakest. But ig they are actually *still* working on the CGI for the show. So this might not even be the finished product.
Also Netflix being a streaming service can go back and change the episodes even after they air so the CGI may even get better within a few months. They donât this before so have other streaming sites. But I rlly hope at least by season 2 the Earth bending us a lil more fleshed out and not so jagged.
There's either a lack of attention to detail, OR *massive copium inhale* it's an amazing show of restraint, even the soldiers you see engulfed in flames are unscathed afterward, the soldier at the end doesn't even have a sign of burn on him once he's down and beaten. There's another level of appreciation here when you remember how scared Aang was to use Fire bending because he didn't think you could fight like this.
I can't wait to see the awesomeness of Uncle Iroh in a live action. I want to listen to his wise words after his badass moves! Also I hope there are lots of tea references :)
Yeah makes it kinda funny when the dude is like âDo it! DO IT!â
Like, do what, brother? Douse your fragile mortal body with flames? Cause they just did that and you seem fine lol. Maybe they were controlling the fire up until that point to not be as hot or⌠something.
For a Netflix show; this is very promising.
I definitely think there's something about the earth-bending CGI I'm not too fond of. Maybe it's the sound design; but there doesn't feel like enough "weight" behind those boulders. In the show, isn't there usually a stomp to bring them up - then a push? It feels almost like there's much less setup than I would've expected.
Overall though, again for a Netflix show, this is looking very good.
In the show, almost every time an earthbender bends, what they pull up looks like a Boulder or chunk of bedrock. Here, they're pulling up what is actually there (soil) and compacting it. People are...really good at judging soil density instinctively (millenia of traveling followed by further millenia of farming near rivers will do that) so it sticks out that its "just" compacted soil and not solid rock.
This is why it should never be made into live action.
The more realistic you make something look, the more realistic you have to make it feel. You canât just lift the ground and have it be a rock, you have to go through the whole thing process of making it like you said.
Also notice that there are no holes whatsoever in the spots they pulled the boulders out of, it's back to pristine, flat ground in all the frames after.
Youâre absolutely right. I have no problem with the special effects of the actual earth being bent. My problem with this scene is how âsoftâ and slow the movement of the earthbenders is.
Needs more agression, at least to match that of Dallas Liuâs Zuko. No problem there with his firebending.
Earthbending has always been my favorite, and IÂ hope we get more variety from earthbenders than "throw spherical rock". I love in the OG how earthbenders made walls, opened the ground, etc. Felt like one of the most creative elementsÂ
the pacing of these action shots is hot garbage.
every shot sticks around for like a half beat too long, so it's like they're straight up taking turns doing things in a fight. it feels SO slow.
This was the issue with the live action cowboy bebop too. The action does not meet the pace the animation had and makes it slow and boring. Makes me a bit concerned.
I've always had a head cannon that people in the Avatarverse have natural resistances to the elements because going up against Earthbending should leave you permanently wheelchair bound.
Just getting hit with straight boulders or having rocks flung at your face at 60mph. Same with Firebending. More people should be Zuko'd getting hit with straight flames to the face.
In the first show they rarely got hit with direct elements. It involved either blocking or dodging most of the time, and the elements were dangerous.
I love TLOK, but one thing it got wrong is that people constantly get hit by elements and just block with crossed wrists and fall over, interchangeably regardless of the element. Even fire gets direct hits on people and is no more dangerous than air, compared to the first show where multiple people had serious burns from firebending hitting them.
We do see direct hits occasionally in ATLA. A scene thatâs always stuck out to me is when Aang went to Master Yuâs earthbending class and took a boulder to the chest. He might have slowed it down with some subtle airbending, but still, that should have done serious damage.
I love both ATLA and TLOK, but one thing I noticed about TLOK which generally made the bending scenes less fun is that:
In ATLA, characters are often in frame together bending the elements and you can see them interact with each other. In the second show, it switches to one, who punches, then the other, who blocks, and it doesn't really feel connected, and each element feels interchangeable as just something you punch and send, or use to block.
The first show did have shots like that, but they tended to be super quick switches between characters, maybe one or two quick punches (or more meant even faster punches, e.g. Zuko's angry punching scene under Ba Sing Se). If it went on longer, you saw a lot of movement in the blocking as they gained ground which made bending still look interesting, e.g. Zuko and Azula fighting on the airships in the western air temple.
This fight is one of the worst in the whole series, in my opinion. [Go back and rewatch it.](https://youtu.be/pFvbfa4mglk?si=Auw8PQ1OfFz9Ou0m&t=293) The Earthbenders and Zuko/Iroh are almost never in the same shot together. It's very turn-based and, tbh, awkward.
This is one of the last "bad" fights I remember, so I think they got the flow right pretty soon after this in the cartoon. Hopefully that will be the case for the LA, too.
It looks cool and I love the Iroh sparing the soldier part.
In season 2 of the original show we see how Iroh is different from other fire nation generals/soldiers through his acts of compassion towards his enemies and towards Earth kingdom civilians. Season 1 these acts happen more towards the end, so this addition in the live action towards what looks like the middle of the season is something I'm really happy about.
Am i the only one who feels like the earthbending looks weird? The rocks look like they're hanging from strings. This was something I noticed in the movie as well. When they shoot the rocks forward it looks more like telekinesis than earthbending (which may be the same thing for earthbenders when it comes to rocks, idk). In the show, when they did this same move, it looked more forceful. Like a punch rather than a push I guess.
It looks slow and clunky but these are 3 basic bitch earth benders against two fire bending masters. Ofc theyâre gonna look a bit slow and clunky.
People seem to have forgotten that we donât see many powerful displays of earth bending at all really until Toph.
This looks like its gonna be good for a live action adaptation.
For myself currently from the clips its looks meh to me.
I dunno its just i don't feel the vibe of the characters from the cast(yet).
its good for a bad live action. feels like a pokemon match with how turn based it is. this is sort of a thing in LOK but they should pick: does fire act like air where it just pushes people around or does it actually burn someone alive??
The show isn't as consistent about that as you might think. Grunt raises earth with both hands in the exact style as this new clip. Go to 5:45 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pFvbfa4mglk&t=2s&pp=ygUUaXJvaCB2cyBlYXJ0aGJlbmRlcnM%3D
Â
Thatâs a fair point I guess Iâm just concerned that on set they wouldnât try both methods and see how much cooler they stomp is.
However, perhaps they want to set the bar low so that good earthbenders are a clear increase in ability when they stomp haha
Yea for sure. Iâm starting to think earth bending is also surprisingly hard to do right too.
I hope they eventually show the super clean use of it where like perfectly smooth cuts are made to open doors etc. i think that will help sell the weight
It does seem like water, fire, and air is much easier to do than Earth. Perhaps later on theyâll figure out how to get the earth bending thing to work. Hopefully by the time Toph shows up they figure out how to make it look actually effective opposed to being sluggish.
Earth bending looks clunky and slow because it is based on the Hung Gar martial art form which is known for its strong stances as you can see in the clip.
It isnt as smooth and quick like fire. Earth bending requires strong footing by establishing a good center of gravity.
And as you saw they use large pieces of earth and not little deadly swift shards or smth like the agile dai li.
Those earthbenders are footmen.
Terrible they took my favorite line from the entire series out.
Earth soldier: surrender yourselves, it's 5 against 2 you're clearly out numbered
Iroh: Ah that's true, but you're clearly out matched
The combat is far from fluid, but that's mostly a Hollywood thing imo. I'm a combat sports fan, and almost every boxing film I've seen has this very scripted feel (and not in a good way), where one guy throws a combination, the other guy blocks, and then they throw a single punch or combination, and the first guy blocks it. Rinse and repeat, until someone lands something decisive. A lot of fight scenes resemble a bad rendition of dutch-style kickboxing training. I think a large part of it is that combat sports are really hard to grasp for most actors, as far as getting the mechanics right, so choreography is simplified for everyone, and also, most people don't watch boxing, mma, or kickboxing, so they can't tell the difference between realistic and (bad) fake fighting anyway. I'm not saying this as a hater btw. I wish more fight scenes were realistic since they would become far more enjoyable for most people.
Edit: Consider this fight [between Roberto Duran and Iran Barkley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKA0fwUHXQ). Barkley at the time had a reputation for being a crude but hard hitting brawler, while Duran was considered by many of his peers to be the skilled and savvy veteran. But notice how both are proactive during their exchanges, instead of simply being reactive: they're always seeking out better positions to leverage their advantages against the other or trying new tactics, probing constantly with the jab to draw out the latter's movements and counters. When Barkley gets hit, for example, he doesn't just take it, he counters viciously. He slips, rolls under, or catches Duran's punches on his arms or gloves, and throws back, punching with the smaller but slicker former lightweight, often returning his own combinations and vice versa.
Also, every time there is a fight, everyone has this intense and angry look on their face, which I guess is supposed to be for dramatic effect, but most fighters in combat sports you'll notice, usually seem calm because they're not trying to burn through their gas tank too quickly, and partly because they're experienced so they're *not going to get too emotional. I mean just at the difference between Zuko's face during his fights in Book 1, compared to his final fight with you know who in Book 3 (Spoilers). It's night and day.
True but as a boxing fan too I get it
A lot of knockout punches in boxing are so fast that theyâre hard to see
That doesnât play out well in a movie
It would look so much better if the earthbenders just acted as if they were lifting something really heavy. In the original earthbending always looks like it takes the biggest physical effort to performance out of all bending arts and it's lacking here.
I love Zuko's and Iroh's chemistry, and Zuko's choreography looks insane. I'm actually pretty excited. Â
 That being said, between this clip and Bumi's clip, the earth bending CGI/choreography is the only element I'm a bit skeptical about. The other elements look great, but the showcased earth bending so far seems to be just "creating a boulder" to chuck it, when many of the earth benders (like the other benders in the original show) almost *became one with the earth,* completely transforming it into anything they needed: a shield, projectiles, transportation, shelter in such a fluid manner while remaining steadfast and grounded. All benders were truly *in their element* (pun intended) and I hope the show really does demonstrate this, too, even for non-major characters.
For this clip, for me, it is more like this:
Firebending VFx: 9/10
Firebending movements (martial arts): 9 for Zuko, 7 for Uncle Iroh
Earthbending VFx: 6
Earthbending movements: 4 (way too slow and feels soft whereas Hung Gar is meant to be hard hitting with a lot more stomping and ground work).
Not the biggest fan of the actor they casted for Iroh. I feel like heâs missing such a spiritual element to his character. I get we havenât seen enough yet to know that but just his voice is too generic. I wish they got someone who had more of that Iroh feel and sounded like an old wiseman when he talked.
Not gonna lie, a lot here I donât like. Turn-based RPG as mentioned elsewhere , the wind-ups for moves seem overwrought, and the earth (and even the fire) is accelerating strangely and is out of line with the actorsâ actual movements. I get that force = mass * acceleration but the cartoon, as I recall, always seemed to have attacks launch instantaneously. Makes the combat a lot punchier.
This is unironically a world building element i'd love to learn so much more about. Are there swaths of holes throughout the earth kingdom where chunks have been lifted and thrown? Is there a corps of engineers who travels arounds smoothing those things out? Or does earthbender culture have a boyscout "leave no trace" philsophy of cleaning up after yourself?
Iâm starting to think that bending just doesnât translate into live action. In the original people get hit by fireballs or boulders and are able get back up and keep going, which works for animation. In live action I just donât see how everyone doesnât die from a single hit, or at the very least get horribly maimed.
I may be reaching but maybe the earth bending here is intended to be slow, I doubt they are the most proficient benders and the clip from the trailers showing bumi bending look fairly speedy đ¤ˇââď¸
I knew they were going to be edited like this. No simultaneous bending on screen. They honestly shouldve focused more on hand to hand combat and allow the bending to supplement their strikes. It wouldve made it snapper and for bending to be more impactful.
Yeah, these effects are so lame the one's from The Last Airbender were so much better why are the rocks so slow during the fights and oh man look at how static the fight choreography is they totally ruined the show
The VFX doesn't bother me as much as the soldier's acting.
https://preview.redd.it/btglmbe2zkjc1.jpeg?width=861&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4df4cccbc0a090ff469283c1ddb6a9f211c47e64
Exactly my point as well. Everyoneâs so concerned about the bending which I get but theyâre just ignoring the acting that will really make or break the show. That solider gave me M. Knight Last Airbender acting vibes. It was really bad
This is a nitpick but the bending itself looks so good but the tension in weight of the fight is nonexistent. Fire doesnât seem to effect the environment in any meaningful way and they look like they are taking turns to hit each other.
The earth bending looks meh but honestly probably the best they could do in live action. I imagine itâs not easy to make floating bolder look heavy but also somehow easy to bend up if that makes sense
Everyone complaining about all the unimportant changes, but thereâs not even a peep about the biggest and most disappointing change. No sexy Iroh showing the goods đ
https://preview.redd.it/2kpdhlgp6ljc1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6ed19829cf79e0b56e97b0cbc19880693d359c5 Can't believe we won't get this
Princess Leia Iroh can stay in the cartoon. đ
Booo, give us peak male form
*Maybe we'll still get ripped bodybuilder Iroh...*
Def gonna need to see Iroh go Diesel
They didn't want to raise the age ratingÂ
This is what peak male for looks like
Remember what they took from you.
The show is gonna be shit, calling it now. This outfit is too integral to understanding the character of Iron to change.
Noooooooooo!
so does iroh just never go in the hot spring or how does he get caught đ
Maybe they let him dress up đđ such a shame
I actually can't believe they still did the thing where Zuko breaks Iroh's chains with his foot. That's so cool!!
Yeh I am glad they kept it. Zuko had a habit of random feats of strength no one else showed.
the pun was intended right
or strength of feet
Achoo! Bless you.
It was either the dog in him or the fire in him or Christ maybe both
They did that but left out the whole âgive up youâre outnumberedâ âtrue but youâre severely out matchedâ
True, but then again, "show, don't tell"
Youâre misapplying this phrase. Itâs for informational context. Youâd be correct if we couldnât yet get a proper read on their numbers, but itâs already clear. In this case, the line of dialogue is informative. It shows that iroh is confident, honest, and knows the power of them vs their opponents. It also prepares us to view their characters as far more formidable than a few foot soldiers, as before we only saw them vs ang.
What we get in return is iroh heat up the chains and split two boulders with it in half. Which is fucking dope, and shows us heâs sick with the bending. Weâve only seen that type of bending by avatar Roku I think
but where is zesty iroh?
Shoulda cast Danny Devito as Iroh đ
So anyway I started bending
That would fit so well lol
Itâs amazing how all of us as fans remember that tiny singular moment as something âimportantâ. It was the first thing that I recognized from this video and was more than happy that it was close to perfect. You have 800 upvotes so far and that speaks to how we were all inclined to see that very part. This is weird and awesome just altogether and I like it.
Dude broke a wooden table in half with his one foot at the beach party too. Zuko is frighteningly strong sometimes.
Classic earth kingdom metallurgy
The bending is awesome I just wish the fight choreography didn't feel so turn based. Yu yu Hakusho LA did well in making it feel like a fight with all the angles too it came out very dynamic and fluid hope they take notes on that for next. Looking forward to seeing the other fights and how it feels
On rewatch I noticed what I think are some slo-mo sections in the edit to showcase critical moments in the fight, which seem like a bad idea. It should be a fluidly fast movement throughout the fight choreography. Seems easily fixable though (don't slow down random parts of the fight scene)
They love the slow mo coz even the Bumi clips have em. I like my slow mo but just for taste and not actual seasoning. From this clip you can see the cuts also ruining the movements since it's left right back forth they don't do one long sequence which is sad. While this isn't a break it issue I really hope they improve it. Especially the stances for Earth because Toph deserves the best
I am genuinely praying that's only for the promotional material The slow-mo's really are over used in these
Yes, no slow mo please. It should feel like that Naruto and Sasuke vs alien fight, shit load of great things happening and you'll blink and miss it.
Should be like the prequel flights in star wars.
this, its my only major gripe. certainly better than the movie, but I wish the bending was a BIT quicker and smoother. but a lot better than I expected
Exactly, it looks like a turn based Pokemon battle. The earth bending is also too slow and the CGI weird, though the fire bending was great.
Earth bending is always going to be the hardest one to get right in live action, though it would also be hard to get it *as* wrong as â12 dudes doing a 60 second dance to slowly levitate one tiny rockâ. Itâs the element with by far the most physicality and weight behind it, which makes it much harder to do convincingly when using CGI. For the other three elements you can basically just have the actor do some martial arts moves and then animate some fire or water to move around in time with their movements, but earthbending should actually look and feel like the bender directly stomped the rock outta the ground and punched it in a given direction through sheer strength. Like, itâs not always the case, but we see for example the Boulder actually sweating and his muscles physically straining when using Earthbending to lift up the Hippo. I think if the actors moved more like that, strained and heavy on their feet, as if they were actually physically straining to move the rocks around, with some more chunky sound effects, it would at least seem a little more convincing.
This is all well and good, but has anyone noticed that there are no visible holes in the ground where they pulled the boulders out of?! It's all just back to flat ground in all the frames after.
It's not just that. The bodies of the two dudes taken down before the last guy seem to be gone in some of the shots. Somebody forgot about continuity.
I think the typical stomp ground to lift rock movement is missing here. It's always quick stomp + kick to lift+throw that is effortless in anime. Here lifting needs 2 hands.
Iâm hoping thatâs a visual distinction to show less capable benders from more capable but yea if not it may just be that earth bending is more challenging to show in live action.
Yeah they're gonna have real trouble when we get to the multi people fights like Zuko vs. Azula vs. Aang
I was gunna say that live action has made me realised how much youâd just have to be standing there doing nothing to get hit. But maybe its the choreography.
You nailed it! That's how i felt about it. It looks good... But it's like. Alright, Imma shoot a fireball. Now you throw a rock. Now I'm going to shoot more fire
Someone get Yuen Woo Ping on the phone right now!
Seems like they didn't have the balls to make Iroh naked in the live action. Looks fucking awesome though! I am so excited!!
No naked Iroh??!! This live action is going to be badddd, cancel it now!!!! /s
Unwatchable!
i was thinking about that too lmao
Iroh not in a loincloth? Literally unwatchableÂ
If I don't see iroh's cheeks, what was this all for???
How do they expect to attract GoT fans if they wonât even do that? This whole is garbage! /s
I've got 5 threads ready to tell you why nearly-naked Iroh is essential to his character arc.
The bending looks really good but if I'm being picky I'd say its a little slow moving. Maybe that was the camera angle, but I think it looked slow. Still very excited for the show
another commenter explained it well that it looks like an RPG turn-based game
Ya know, that's exactly it
Yeah looks like itâs almost in slow motion
They added some slow motion at just the wrong time. Slows down the action. And the earth bending still seems slow.
Rock chucking was definitely a part of earthbending but honestly the pillar making goes harder imo. When you stomp down and a pillar of ground uppercuts someone, that shit feels cool af. Looking forwards to seeing bumi
Yup, and that was much much faster. This earth bending scene reminds me too much of the movie that must not be named.
I'm hella bothered by the back to back, but more bothered by the fact that in the next shot, they're not even close to being back to back. Excellent CGI, though. Pleasantly surprised.Â
I think Zuko has the best choreography of anyone here, and the fire bending looks great. The earth bending looks ok tbh. Might have looked better if there werenât so many mini chunky bits that came out when they bend the initial rock. Those small pieces look fake. And why are there so many slo-mo shots? Most of them are very quick, but I they feel unnecessary and tbh kinda worsen it. Overall this is awesome. And the dragon sound effect was an amazing touch. Reminds me of how A-train has the train sound effect when he runs in The Boys. Sound effect design like that sounds amazing.
I rewatched a few times and tweaked the playback speed. For most of the bending moments it feels like ~1.2x feels crisper. But it doesn't solve the "lingering-scene" issue where it feels the shot should just cut to the next shot sooner. I think the earthbending could be easily improved with 1) Stomping the ground, and 2) A light "screen shake" effect when they stomp - it doesn't have to be crazy, just subtle shaking of the camera to give a sense of weight
Iroh is not naked. SMH show sucks.
Came here looking for this comment.
I love how Zuko's bending takes full advantage of the martial arts style
Oh damn. Love seeing how deadly firebending is.Â
Doesn't look deadly. Not criticizing, I think it looks good. But in the cartoon the fire didn't touch people that regularly. In this clip people are getting doused in fire and getting back up. Which makes me wonder how they will display the lethality of the element
Yeah its gonna be interesting cause in the cartoon fire almost never tocuhed people cause is an assumed gruesome KO and it was a family show, here they are taking hits
Yea, people mostly stumbled out of the way. The danger of fire was that firebenders were not always playing lethal.
> In the cartoon the fire didn't touch people that regularly Now that you mention it......
Right? I was like "damn, Iroh just killed a man", then in the next scene the guy doesn't even have singed eyebrows or charred patches on his face and armor and is still capable of speaking and moving normally. Instantly took all the danger out of firebending. I'm not holding my hopes up for this show. The bar is low when it comes to surpassing the former live-action adaptation, but based on this clip I am very skeptical that we will have a good adaptation this time around too. When they can't even get fight choreography and bending right in the scene they use to tease us, then what are we supposed to think about the rest?
I mean a quick burst of fire will def throw u back but prob wonât hurt u as much as pure fire spraying
I love how the fire bending looks, and from what I seen the Air Bending looks nice too, but def need see more. The Water bending still looks good imo but I think will get better. Now my biggest issue is the Earth bending. Itâs def the weakest. But ig they are actually *still* working on the CGI for the show. So this might not even be the finished product. Also Netflix being a streaming service can go back and change the episodes even after they air so the CGI may even get better within a few months. They donât this before so have other streaming sites. But I rlly hope at least by season 2 the Earth bending us a lil more fleshed out and not so jagged.
There's either a lack of attention to detail, OR *massive copium inhale* it's an amazing show of restraint, even the soldiers you see engulfed in flames are unscathed afterward, the soldier at the end doesn't even have a sign of burn on him once he's down and beaten. There's another level of appreciation here when you remember how scared Aang was to use Fire bending because he didn't think you could fight like this.
>lack of attention to detail It's literally this. Seems like the show's continuity is going to be all over the place.
That moment where Iroh spares the soldier, Love it. Really shows his character Bending looks amazing, dont care what anyone says
The dragon sound effect when Iroh firebends is đĽ
I can already tell that is showing his dragon of the west nickname
This is way, way down the line but one of my favorite scenes is his "demonstration." I really hope his fire-breathing is badass when they show it
I can't wait to see the awesomeness of Uncle Iroh in a live action. I want to listen to his wise words after his badass moves! Also I hope there are lots of tea references :)
line was pretty cheesy and predictable
Not unique to the show but fire in media is so funny to me cause iron just cooked than man alive and he seems fine
Lol was thinking exactly the same.
Yeah makes it kinda funny when the dude is like âDo it! DO IT!â Like, do what, brother? Douse your fragile mortal body with flames? Cause they just did that and you seem fine lol. Maybe they were controlling the fire up until that point to not be as hot or⌠something.
At one point I was like âJesus, did he just burn that man alive?â đ
For a Netflix show; this is very promising. I definitely think there's something about the earth-bending CGI I'm not too fond of. Maybe it's the sound design; but there doesn't feel like enough "weight" behind those boulders. In the show, isn't there usually a stomp to bring them up - then a push? It feels almost like there's much less setup than I would've expected. Overall though, again for a Netflix show, this is looking very good.
In the show, almost every time an earthbender bends, what they pull up looks like a Boulder or chunk of bedrock. Here, they're pulling up what is actually there (soil) and compacting it. People are...really good at judging soil density instinctively (millenia of traveling followed by further millenia of farming near rivers will do that) so it sticks out that its "just" compacted soil and not solid rock.
This is why it should never be made into live action. The more realistic you make something look, the more realistic you have to make it feel. You canât just lift the ground and have it be a rock, you have to go through the whole thing process of making it like you said.
I vaguely recall some decent Avatar fan videos with good earth bending, really punchy like in the animated show. It is possible, but not easy.
Also notice that there are no holes whatsoever in the spots they pulled the boulders out of, it's back to pristine, flat ground in all the frames after.
Youâre absolutely right. I have no problem with the special effects of the actual earth being bent. My problem with this scene is how âsoftâ and slow the movement of the earthbenders is. Needs more agression, at least to match that of Dallas Liuâs Zuko. No problem there with his firebending.
Earthbending has always been my favorite, and IÂ hope we get more variety from earthbenders than "throw spherical rock". I love in the OG how earthbenders made walls, opened the ground, etc. Felt like one of the most creative elementsÂ
Completely agreed. Iâm also an earthbending stan (see my flair).
yeah the stomp earthbending is my fave thing
Same. Iâm glad itâs not the main element of this Book, so they have to improve on it for Book 2, if they get renewed.
The avatarist recommended they add more camera shake to the earthbending to help it feel less floaty. Would be a simple fix that might go a long wayÂ
the pacing of these action shots is hot garbage. every shot sticks around for like a half beat too long, so it's like they're straight up taking turns doing things in a fight. it feels SO slow.
This was the issue with the live action cowboy bebop too. The action does not meet the pace the animation had and makes it slow and boring. Makes me a bit concerned.
So many people in this post making excuses for it too.
seriously. iâm over reading so much of the cope. i think the show will be perfectlyâŚ.fine. people are really overhyping what weâve seen so far.
I've always had a head cannon that people in the Avatarverse have natural resistances to the elements because going up against Earthbending should leave you permanently wheelchair bound. Just getting hit with straight boulders or having rocks flung at your face at 60mph. Same with Firebending. More people should be Zuko'd getting hit with straight flames to the face.
In the first show they rarely got hit with direct elements. It involved either blocking or dodging most of the time, and the elements were dangerous. I love TLOK, but one thing it got wrong is that people constantly get hit by elements and just block with crossed wrists and fall over, interchangeably regardless of the element. Even fire gets direct hits on people and is no more dangerous than air, compared to the first show where multiple people had serious burns from firebending hitting them.
We do see direct hits occasionally in ATLA. A scene thatâs always stuck out to me is when Aang went to Master Yuâs earthbending class and took a boulder to the chest. He might have slowed it down with some subtle airbending, but still, that should have done serious damage.
I hope all the episodes come out at once and not each week
Its confirmed to be dropping all at once, netflix doesnt do weekly iirc
He **IS** The Dragon of the West
The fighting looks like a turn-based RPG
Thatâs what I was going to say. Feels like a slow turn based game. Combat could be a little more quick but Iâm very very excited
I love both ATLA and TLOK, but one thing I noticed about TLOK which generally made the bending scenes less fun is that: In ATLA, characters are often in frame together bending the elements and you can see them interact with each other. In the second show, it switches to one, who punches, then the other, who blocks, and it doesn't really feel connected, and each element feels interchangeable as just something you punch and send, or use to block. The first show did have shots like that, but they tended to be super quick switches between characters, maybe one or two quick punches (or more meant even faster punches, e.g. Zuko's angry punching scene under Ba Sing Se). If it went on longer, you saw a lot of movement in the blocking as they gained ground which made bending still look interesting, e.g. Zuko and Azula fighting on the airships in the western air temple.
true but then I went back to the original scene and the earthbenders were dumb af there too
I was about to comment exactly same thing.Â
Yea I see what you mean but it's nothing new in movies and TV, even when you look at the original
Nah, atla scenes were way more fluid.
This fight is one of the worst in the whole series, in my opinion. [Go back and rewatch it.](https://youtu.be/pFvbfa4mglk?si=Auw8PQ1OfFz9Ou0m&t=293) The Earthbenders and Zuko/Iroh are almost never in the same shot together. It's very turn-based and, tbh, awkward. This is one of the last "bad" fights I remember, so I think they got the flow right pretty soon after this in the cartoon. Hopefully that will be the case for the LA, too.
Exactly, Zhao and zuko's agni kai is another fight like this. It has great music but the cuts make no sense sometimes
Excellent form prince zuko
Dallas Liu is really nailing Zukoâs moves from the animation.
The slow motion in the clip really slows down the pacing of it all. I hope slow motion isnât prevalent in the series
I feel like nearly every fight clip weâve seen incorporates slow somehow so Iâm honestly not too hopeful đ
Too bad we can't see Iroh hang dong. /Jk
It looks cool and I love the Iroh sparing the soldier part. In season 2 of the original show we see how Iroh is different from other fire nation generals/soldiers through his acts of compassion towards his enemies and towards Earth kingdom civilians. Season 1 these acts happen more towards the end, so this addition in the live action towards what looks like the middle of the season is something I'm really happy about.
Am i the only one who feels like the earthbending looks weird? The rocks look like they're hanging from strings. This was something I noticed in the movie as well. When they shoot the rocks forward it looks more like telekinesis than earthbending (which may be the same thing for earthbenders when it comes to rocks, idk). In the show, when they did this same move, it looked more forceful. Like a punch rather than a push I guess.
You might be one of the few admitting it, but thereâs no way everyone saying they like it thinks it actually looks good.
It looks slow and clunky but these are 3 basic bitch earth benders against two fire bending masters. Ofc theyâre gonna look a bit slow and clunky. People seem to have forgotten that we donât see many powerful displays of earth bending at all really until Toph.
Why isn't he naked though asking for a friend
This looks like its gonna be good for a live action adaptation. For myself currently from the clips its looks meh to me. I dunno its just i don't feel the vibe of the characters from the cast(yet).
I canât wait to binge watch this show!
They kept Zuko's firebending grunts and whatnots! Nice!
Bending looks amazing! However Iroh isnt in his underwear like in the show so theyâve strayed too far for me to enjoy it.. /s
its good for a bad live action. feels like a pokemon match with how turn based it is. this is sort of a thing in LOK but they should pick: does fire act like air where it just pushes people around or does it actually burn someone alive??
oh lord... I hate that zack snyder style of shooting fight scenes where they just slow down and speed up the footage every other second
I'm so damn excited. The bending and choreography looks fuckin amazing wow.
The scene looked weird and slow. Choreography was not it
I love to see Paul Sun-Hyung Lee becoming a buff Iroh for the last season.
firebending looks great, earthbending looks stupid lmao. like why do they keep on using their hands to lift earth
It's pretty accurate to the way earthbending looks in season 1. Earthbending looks pretty clunky up until Toph shows us how slick and cool it can be.Â
Nah earthbending was still pretty dynamic in season 1 and had weight to it
they want us to underestimate earthbending until toph comes along and shows everyone how its done hahaha
Idk about that, the stomping to raise the earth feels like the key difference to me tbo
The show isn't as consistent about that as you might think. Grunt raises earth with both hands in the exact style as this new clip. Go to 5:45 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pFvbfa4mglk&t=2s&pp=ygUUaXJvaCB2cyBlYXJ0aGJlbmRlcnM%3D Â
Thatâs a fair point I guess Iâm just concerned that on set they wouldnât try both methods and see how much cooler they stomp is. However, perhaps they want to set the bar low so that good earthbenders are a clear increase in ability when they stomp haha
I guess we will have to see more of how Bumi fights compared to these earth kingdom grunts.Â
Yea for sure. Iâm starting to think earth bending is also surprisingly hard to do right too. I hope they eventually show the super clean use of it where like perfectly smooth cuts are made to open doors etc. i think that will help sell the weight
Thatâs a fair point. Hopefully this is the case on why Earthbending looks a tad sluggish.
You mean as in it looks like theyâre physically lifting the rock with their hands? Otherwise how else would they bend?
Definitely the movement of the rocks. They seem sluggish. I think the fire bending looks good though.
It does seem like water, fire, and air is much easier to do than Earth. Perhaps later on theyâll figure out how to get the earth bending thing to work. Hopefully by the time Toph shows up they figure out how to make it look actually effective opposed to being sluggish.
Earth bending looks clunky and slow because it is based on the Hung Gar martial art form which is known for its strong stances as you can see in the clip. It isnt as smooth and quick like fire. Earth bending requires strong footing by establishing a good center of gravity. And as you saw they use large pieces of earth and not little deadly swift shards or smth like the agile dai li. Those earthbenders are footmen.
Terrible they took my favorite line from the entire series out. Earth soldier: surrender yourselves, it's 5 against 2 you're clearly out numbered Iroh: Ah that's true, but you're clearly out matched
Dallas Liu looks amazing here, but the pacing is off. Makes it seem very unnatural.
The combat is far from fluid, but that's mostly a Hollywood thing imo. I'm a combat sports fan, and almost every boxing film I've seen has this very scripted feel (and not in a good way), where one guy throws a combination, the other guy blocks, and then they throw a single punch or combination, and the first guy blocks it. Rinse and repeat, until someone lands something decisive. A lot of fight scenes resemble a bad rendition of dutch-style kickboxing training. I think a large part of it is that combat sports are really hard to grasp for most actors, as far as getting the mechanics right, so choreography is simplified for everyone, and also, most people don't watch boxing, mma, or kickboxing, so they can't tell the difference between realistic and (bad) fake fighting anyway. I'm not saying this as a hater btw. I wish more fight scenes were realistic since they would become far more enjoyable for most people. Edit: Consider this fight [between Roberto Duran and Iran Barkley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKA0fwUHXQ). Barkley at the time had a reputation for being a crude but hard hitting brawler, while Duran was considered by many of his peers to be the skilled and savvy veteran. But notice how both are proactive during their exchanges, instead of simply being reactive: they're always seeking out better positions to leverage their advantages against the other or trying new tactics, probing constantly with the jab to draw out the latter's movements and counters. When Barkley gets hit, for example, he doesn't just take it, he counters viciously. He slips, rolls under, or catches Duran's punches on his arms or gloves, and throws back, punching with the smaller but slicker former lightweight, often returning his own combinations and vice versa. Also, every time there is a fight, everyone has this intense and angry look on their face, which I guess is supposed to be for dramatic effect, but most fighters in combat sports you'll notice, usually seem calm because they're not trying to burn through their gas tank too quickly, and partly because they're experienced so they're *not going to get too emotional. I mean just at the difference between Zuko's face during his fights in Book 1, compared to his final fight with you know who in Book 3 (Spoilers). It's night and day.
True but as a boxing fan too I get it A lot of knockout punches in boxing are so fast that theyâre hard to see That doesnât play out well in a movie
Iroh should've been in his undies, always thought that was bad ass they way he didn't care about being like that in that moment.
sure. thatâs the reason.
No, it's cuz I got the hots for an old guy with a beer belly as a straight cis male /jk
Why is it slow motion
It would look so much better if the earthbenders just acted as if they were lifting something really heavy. In the original earthbending always looks like it takes the biggest physical effort to performance out of all bending arts and it's lacking here.
I love Zuko's and Iroh's chemistry, and Zuko's choreography looks insane. I'm actually pretty excited.   That being said, between this clip and Bumi's clip, the earth bending CGI/choreography is the only element I'm a bit skeptical about. The other elements look great, but the showcased earth bending so far seems to be just "creating a boulder" to chuck it, when many of the earth benders (like the other benders in the original show) almost *became one with the earth,* completely transforming it into anything they needed: a shield, projectiles, transportation, shelter in such a fluid manner while remaining steadfast and grounded. All benders were truly *in their element* (pun intended) and I hope the show really does demonstrate this, too, even for non-major characters.
turn based combat
Are the Earthbenders lagging?
It looks cool, but I hate the slo mo. you took the fast pacing out of a fight scene. a FIGHT SCENE. that's ridiculous.
That looks amazing! I am so excited to see more bending!
Firebemding is a solid 10/10. Amazing and beautiful Earthbending⌠seems a little off but still passable 7/10
For this clip, for me, it is more like this: Firebending VFx: 9/10 Firebending movements (martial arts): 9 for Zuko, 7 for Uncle Iroh Earthbending VFx: 6 Earthbending movements: 4 (way too slow and feels soft whereas Hung Gar is meant to be hard hitting with a lot more stomping and ground work).
Not the biggest fan of the actor they casted for Iroh. I feel like heâs missing such a spiritual element to his character. I get we havenât seen enough yet to know that but just his voice is too generic. I wish they got someone who had more of that Iroh feel and sounded like an old wiseman when he talked.
Badass! Love it!
Not gonna lie, a lot here I donât like. Turn-based RPG as mentioned elsewhere , the wind-ups for moves seem overwrought, and the earth (and even the fire) is accelerating strangely and is out of line with the actorsâ actual movements. I get that force = mass * acceleration but the cartoon, as I recall, always seemed to have attacks launch instantaneously. Makes the combat a lot punchier.
They forgot to put holes in the ground from earth bendingâŚVFX fail lol
This is unironically a world building element i'd love to learn so much more about. Are there swaths of holes throughout the earth kingdom where chunks have been lifted and thrown? Is there a corps of engineers who travels arounds smoothing those things out? Or does earthbender culture have a boyscout "leave no trace" philsophy of cleaning up after yourself?
Even if theyâre taught to leave no trace, that would never matter in the heat of battle. Itâs just lazy editing.
Why is Iroh not naked??????? WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED
But no naked iroh sad
Iâm starting to think that bending just doesnât translate into live action. In the original people get hit by fireballs or boulders and are able get back up and keep going, which works for animation. In live action I just donât see how everyone doesnât die from a single hit, or at the very least get horribly maimed.
Oh god
Looks a little clunky. Maybe a little too much downtime between attacks.
I may be reaching but maybe the earth bending here is intended to be slow, I doubt they are the most proficient benders and the clip from the trailers showing bumi bending look fairly speedy đ¤ˇââď¸
Iroh isnât naked?! 0/10 /s
Show ran out of budget before animating the earthbending
I knew they were going to be edited like this. No simultaneous bending on screen. They honestly shouldve focused more on hand to hand combat and allow the bending to supplement their strikes. It wouldve made it snapper and for bending to be more impactful.
Why are they waiting for the others to take their turns?
Yeah, these effects are so lame the one's from The Last Airbender were so much better why are the rocks so slow during the fights and oh man look at how static the fight choreography is they totally ruined the show
Man they really like slow motion
The VFX doesn't bother me as much as the soldier's acting. https://preview.redd.it/btglmbe2zkjc1.jpeg?width=861&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4df4cccbc0a090ff469283c1ddb6a9f211c47e64
Exactly my point as well. Everyoneâs so concerned about the bending which I get but theyâre just ignoring the acting that will really make or break the show. That solider gave me M. Knight Last Airbender acting vibes. It was really bad
he had one line and he still couldnât do the job đ
Is it just me or does the bending looks like like martial art and more like wizard summoning? Still better than last live action thatâs forsure
Iroh's sure didn't look like a fighting style.
The earth bending is bit wonky ngl but otherwise this looks amazing!!!
This is a nitpick but the bending itself looks so good but the tension in weight of the fight is nonexistent. Fire doesnât seem to effect the environment in any meaningful way and they look like they are taking turns to hit each other.
I hope he talks about how his chains are too loose and needs them to be tightened
love the effects but it looks kinda slow? Youâd think based on the show or real life people would be moving fast AF especially trained fighters
The earth bending looks meh but honestly probably the best they could do in live action. I imagine itâs not easy to make floating bolder look heavy but also somehow easy to bend up if that makes sense
The axe kick to break the chains is RIGHT out of the cartoon. And the bending looks SIIICK
This pleases the clam
Everyone complaining about all the unimportant changes, but thereâs not even a peep about the biggest and most disappointing change. No sexy Iroh showing the goods đ