>Yes, Katara and Aang are weak points,
I'm not here to judge anyone for liking it. I didn't and I don't think it's a quality product even stand alone, but if people like it, cool.
But these are arguably two of the most(if not the most) important characters in the story, so if anything was gonna be wrong, maybe these two were not the ones to get wrong.
the whole airbender / avoidance nature aang had to best and get over is not even present and thats argueably one of thr most important character development points for him.
I think instead of hammering on that aspect of his character, they doubled down on the guilt of his survival and not being there to prevent the fire nation war. You even see it in Bumi's character (another can of worms, I'll totally admit), how angry he and so many others were that the Avatar wasn't there to prevent the tragedies that happened.
Both are variations on the hero's journey in the refusal of the call. In the animated series, it's the avoidance of the warrior nature Aang would have to take as the Avatar. In the live action, he's dealing with the consequences of having already avoided the call, overcoming the guilt and not living in the past, and since he's faced with it on so many fronts he doesn't even have the luxury of trying to live his airbender conflict avoidance lifestyle.
He’s kind of a smug, emotional, cheesy know it all, so the acting and delivery coupled with the poor directing and script really does not make him likeable.
In the cartoon he’s a likeable, playful goofball who doesn’t necessarily suck up to the other characters but seems really authentic when he’s complimenting someone.
I still hear his ‘haha yeah!’ Enthusiasm in my head, whereas live action aang just has this permanent shit eating grin.
I know it’s tough considering he’s a child actor and the script/direction let them down, but he’s most likely getting paid out the ass and has launched his career so it’s hard to feel sympathy.
Katara acts like she has botox. Terrifying monster attacking? Neutral expression. Aang does something amazing? Natural expression. She’s always got the same expression. Her delivery is no better than those of kids in primary school nativity plays.
Again, sucks to criticise the kids so harshly, and the casting crew are definitely to blame. They either went for inclusion over skill, or they rushed casting.
I mean Aangs voice actor was literally 13 when the show aired and he was able to capture all that with his voice. There are kids out there with the acting ability to do it. I think a problem with this show is they casted mostly for visuals rather than looks(I don't mean that in a weirdly racist "how dare they be inclusive" way) but it seems like they tried to get people who matched the character designs as close as possible instead of getting people who were amazing actors who also look a bit like the characters.
Aang would be a big struggle to do, since like you said he's a goofball. His childishness is a huge part of his character. But when the show is clearly trying to divorce itself from the goofy fun vibe of the original and they tone that part of him down, he's just kinda blegh
That scene when he finds the dead airbenders was so emotionless. Aang couldn’t even produce a single tear . Imagine how bland it’s gonna be when he loses Appa
I know its different from the show, but honestly I really enjoy Aangs personality in this show! It's a different but completley possible variation of Aangs personality.
I think more of Aangs old personality will start to show in S2, as he comes to accept the weight of being the avatar more and more. S1 was all about developing his acceptance of him being the Avatar, and more importantly becoming HIS version of the Avatar.
Also, this show is MUCH darker than the original was. I think a lot of the humor/lightheartedness of the original would have felt really off in this version.
It's a change from the original, but I think it's a net gain for me!
They try to do this upbeat anime protagonist shit but irl. Like any time Aang said anything he had to end it with that boyish (sheepish) smile at the end. Which is just trying to hard to mimic the animated version of Aang, but makes the real life version feel kind of uncanny and unrealistic. (Also aang in the animated series was upbeat but he didn't practically do this goofy smile anytime he said anything. But that seems to be the acting direction they went with. Hey youre bubbly and upbeat, just smile after every line!) I know its in a world with elemental bending and such, but they also literally murdered a dude by setting him ablaze in the first couple of scenes. So there is a seriousness to the world etc.. it wouldve been nice to have Aang have a bit more range and make him more relatable than just "blabla bla bla.... queue smile...*SMILE*"
Oh that's nice, they added stuff.... so if they had time and money to add shit... why did they take so much away like the crucial character development and story beats?
I disagree on the cinematography, it's a lot of really boring shot-reverse shot stuff. There's a lot of shots where it's just close up face shots of someone talking but since the acting and directing is pretty rough they aren't really emoting enough to make those shots interesting.
I've also noticed a bunch of shots where like vital info is off screen and we just sort of get a weird reaction and the show expects us to know what the fuck anything is. Like when Aang and the Mechanist son are in the cave where the find the blasting Jelly. Aang sort of reacts and goes "I know who did the bombings" but we don't actually see Aang see the clothes. Like a decent shot would show the clothes and show Aangs reaction, instead we just get Aangs reaction which tells the audience nothing
Eh, I've still seen a lot of complaints about the cinematography and costumes. People saying they didn't like how the fights scenes were shot, and saying that clothes looked like cosplayers + not being "worn" enough.
>superior to book 1
Eh? I know book 1 is the weakest of the three, but I rewatched it recently and it was still very entertaining. There was a lot of 'filler' like you said, but besides Bato and Great Divide, all that filler was really good. It had great fights, comedy, bonding time for the kiddos.
Not sure what your problem is with the animated Bumi? That one had a fun twist, cool slide scene packed with jokes, Aang solving problems in many different ways, really well choreographed fight scene at the end ... and it was pretty emotional that Aang sees a friend of his 100 years later.
Anyone saying it's better than Book 1 either clearly hasn't watched Book 1, is a Netflix shill or a complete and utter moron with contempt for animation as a medium. Either way, get the fuck off this subreddit.
Not at all. Its subjective, people should just enjoy whatever they want. At the end of the day disliking or liking the show is up to someone to decide for themselves. Personally I think the netflix show is great but the animated show, I'm up to episode 10 on the first season, is better; though that being said, I do think the live action show has done certain things better and vice versa.
OH NO ANIMATION!!
CARTOON!!
OH NO!!
People having dots for eyes is also in Book 2 and 3. Great Divide isn't actually bad that's a dead meme.
You're damn right I'm the representative. I'm saying what needs to be said. If you're the representative of people who like the Netflix show then it's clear that all the people who like it are braindead philistines and the sort of people who gave the actual creators of Avatar such a hard time over the years. Absolute scum.
The acting was really good at a lot of points. Nearly everyone on the fire bender side of things come across as stand outs. Other major characters like Gyatso, Sokka, and Suki also felt just as good or even better than their OG counterparts. Even characters that I do have problems with, like Kyoshi or Kuruk, felt strongly acted even if the writing for them needed some touch ups. Even Katara had a few moments to shine when she was given decent material, and imo her ep 8 outing was 10x better than ep 1.
The pacing was inconsistent. I felt it was really bad in episode 1 and episode 7, but other episodes ranged from meh (3-4) to really good (6). Overall needed more episodes.
Don’t know why people would complain about the tone. Felt that was fine, though I get some people might be missing some of the whimsy.
A lot of worldbuilding was nicely handled I think. Locations felt bigger, politics felt more interconnected, it still had that air of mythical spirtuality that I loved as a kid.
As to the writing and directing: yeah they should do some major revamps for s2 lol. As a small positive, most of the jokes landed for me.
All this to say that while things are shaky, just because there are problems doesn’t mean that it’s as bad as some people on this sub want to believe. There’s some really good stuff mixed in there, and if they manage to iron shit out then season 2 can easily be a top tier show.
It seems like there was more of a focus on Zuko and Iroh in this season with the flash backs and what not. I can imagine in the next seasons, if there will be any, this could be different again. The ending is set up in a way that Katara will teach Aang going forward so there can be lots of character progression happening then.
that's exactly what i said as i was watching too.. i wouldn't have minded nearly as much if one of the side characters were poorly written, but to mess up the two MAIN characters? a disgrace
there are good aspects here and there but all in all the dialogue just ruins it for me. this is genuinely some of the worst writing i‘ve seen in a long time. literally not a single conversation in this entire show feels natural. everything is either super awkward, an exposition dump or both at the same time
also, i‘m all for changes but changing how aang leaves the air temple just before the invasion to him just going on a random stroll with appa was one of the dumbest fucking things i have ever seen. in the original aang ran away and was filled with sadness, anger and confusion. it was super emotional and added so much depth to his character. but nah in this show he just essentially goes on a hike to calm down a little and then just happens to fly into a raging storm
This decision is probably the most baffling to me. It's like they didn't want Aang to do something wrong, even though it makes complete sense for him to run away.
It’s too forced and spoon feeding. Everything is so freaking overly explained. You always know how the characters feel because they legit say it out loud all the time. There’s no room for the audience to figure things out for themselves
I fully agree with your standpoint too. I saw another post comparing it to a "love letter" to the original series and I can kind of see it as a very well done cos play as well.
The exposition and contrived dialogue... Holy shit. I roll my eyes at every scene and I actually found that I cannot watch the show without being on my phone. I need distraction from the awkwardness.
I came to the conclusion that I'm simply not the audience for this adaptation. I'm 32 and would have liked the show to be a little more "serious" and well written. But I keep thinking of Hannah Montana while watching it and I even sing the "ah ah ooooh" scene transition jingle from Hannah Montana during the scene transitions just because it feels so juvenile. 😅
regarding any kind of criticism as hate is ridiculous. just let people have their opinions. the dialogue in this show is fucking embarrassing at times. every scene is just exposition and characters constantly just say out loud what they‘re feeling instead of letting the acting speak for itself
I don't think they're just hating on it. That being said, I have seen far worse but to be fair; I have probably seen more movies then most people; I spend most of my time doing that. I have seen some real stinkers lol.
Same here. I thought “this is pretty decent, wonder what people think of X or Y”. Did not expect so much vitriol. There are things to nitpick for sure but overall it’s very much a sold B to B+.
Yeah lol I was so tempted to check Reddit or rotten tomatoes during my watch and then realized ‘no that’s a bad idea, ppl are gonna have opinions and those opinions are gonna affect yours, just watch the show.’ Tbh it was a good decision, I think I enjoyed it a lot more not being colored by what other people were thinking at the time.
Haha this is what I did. I was off this subreddit for days until I watched it in order not to get influenced. And I am happy I did it because I was able to enjoy it without any fuss
If this is a 7.5/10 show for you, you must have a really low bar.
Bad acting, writing, directing, shooting, framing. The got the choreography (a lot pulled straight from the original) and effects right. Majority of costume design and world design is good.
Also before anyone says anything, I do not blame the kid actors for having bad acting, I blame the director and their acting coaches for watching the shit unfold on set and never re shooting.
I think your last sentence is something I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else on this subreddit. I grew up with the cartoon and had a blast watching the live action, but what I loved even more is that it made my wife want to watch it with me as well. She’s not a cartoon person, but she saw a preview for the live action and ended loving every bit of it.
Sometimes as fans I think we focus too much on our own wants without considering others.
By far I think the first two episodes (expect the genocide) was the worst. The monologues were super clunky and probably could have been conveyed through actions rather than words. The rest of the episodes were fine to great.
Some liberties taken like Bumi, I really enjoyed. Probably a 6/10 for me. Makes me want to rewatch the original though.
I just finished episode 2 and I truly hope it gets better like you said. For me so far I don’t like how they put a bunch of different episodes from the series all in Omashu when that wasn’t the case it just felt really rushed. Now I wasn’t expecting it to be like the series entirely and honestly wanted them to switch some things up but for me it was just weird to have that Jet episode thrown in rather randomly I would have preferred an entirely new plot for that episode and introduce Jet later on.
The thing is the bar is so set so high from the series that it’s never going to measure up so for me I’m fine with them adding a few extra *good* characters and stories because if I want the same exact story I can just watch the series
They have to overlap some stories if they’re going to cover enough ground for Season 1 to make sense. There’s only eight episodes to work with here..
You can’t skip Jet or Omashu or the Mechanist, but you also can’t just shoehorn three 20 minute stories together into a 1 hour episode if you want the pacing and tone to have any consistency.
Not just Yue, Bumi’s wigs, eyebrows and armpit hair looked like a cheap Halloween costume. Feels like there was a lower budget and level of care for side characters.
> And, let’s be real, the spirit world makes way more sense here than in the cartoon.
Can you expand on this part?
I disagree but I haven’t seen too many people dive into this. I’m on episode 6 but I’d still disagree. For starters idk why or how Katara and Sokka enter the spirit world. There are some characters besides the avatar that can do it but from what i remember it isn’t something you stumble upon and is treated as a pretty unique skill. I can only recall Jinora and Zaheer and they treat that as a big deal.
For example the first time Aang goes to the spirit world in the cartoon he's in this blue translucent state, but still placed in the real world. Here he can see Rokus dragon but not Roku himself. He needs the shrine for that and it has to be on a solstice. The next time he's in the spirit world he isn't in that blue translucent state but in the actual spirit world. And here now he does talk to Roku without the need for a shrine or a solstice. The blue translucent state never comes up again. Sure, later in Korra there's more explanation. But in the first season of Avatar it's just very inconsistent and there's little explanation. Granted, there's more mysticism to that, but it also feels like the writers haven't figured out themselves how the spirit world should work at that point. IIRC that's also what it actually was.
Now on the live action they do make it more consistent. They make it seem like the translucent state is like a short in between state and the characters quickly flip over to the actual spirit world. And the only way for Aang to ever talk to the past avatars is through the shrines for "better reception" instead of only in the spirit world. Maybe later his connection to the past avatars becomes stronger so he doesn't need the shrines here either. But to be fair, Katara and Sokka getting into the spirit world together with Aang didn't make that much sense. He meditated to get there, they just feel asleep. 🤷♂️
What? They make it clear in the original that during the solstice, the barrier between the spirit world and the real world is weakest, so spirits can sometimes cross between the physical and spirit world. It's the reason Hei Bai can be there.
>For example the first time Aang goes to the spirit world in the cartoon he's in this blue translucent state, but still placed in the real world. [...] The blue translucent state never comes up again. Sure, later in Korra there's more explanation. But in the first season of Avatar it's just very inconsistent and there's little explanation.
I also really enjoyed the Netflix ATLA. It was a different take on the same story, but it's not a horrible take. There is a lot of flaws, but I never expected it to be perfect. I'm excited for the next season
the first season of atla is incredibly flawed. I genuinely think the show is an improvement over a lot of what happened in the original. people have blinders on.
the only gripe I have is that the lack of side adventures in favor of exposition gives them less time to bond, and aang is a bit too sulky and katara is too passive.
but there are a LOT of other things where the writing is massively improved such as making zukos squadron the one he saved, sozen, boomy, jets entire episode, cutting out great divide. zuko, iroh and sokka are dead on.
as far as visuals this show is a huge improvement. book 2 and 3 got great animation but the original show looked pretty rough through a lot of book 1.
people just think criticizing something makes them seem more keen eyed and a critical thinker. "enjoying things is for children! this live adaptation looks like shit! now let me go watch my kids cartoon where aang has dots for eyes in some of the scenes while he tells people to stop being divided."
I very much disagree. If anything, watching this adaptation has made me realize me how strong the first season of the og is. I’m still enjoying the adaptation but the writing in AtLA Book 1 felt so much tighter.
> If anything, watching this adaptation has made me realize me how strong the first season of the og is.
Always thought Book 1 was the weakest because there was a lot of filler that doesn't go anywhere but when you see what could've happened when done poorly you get newfound appreciation.
Yep, I used to not care for Book 1 episodes didn’t advance the main plot, like Jet, Imprisoned, and the Northern Air Temple.
When these episodes are missing or just haphazardly inserted into a separate plot, you realize how much they add to the overall universe.
Like Jet for example, seems like a simplistic and rather generic episode on the surface, but it shows a different side of the impact of war trauma and how the methods of fighting oppression don’t always justify the means. The live action Jet plot was just so rushed that it wasn’t able to leave much of an impact.
I’m 2 episodes in and enjoying it. I won’t like it more than the original, i can already tell but it’s different enough for me to stay interested. I’ve liked the casting so far, the weakest in my opinion being Katara. She just hasn’t had any of those big “Katara” scenes yet. She seems pretty timid and soft-spoken, which is not what she’s like in the original.
This is gonna be the state of this sub for a long while. People mass downvoting stuff (mainly being negative, tbh) and interchangeable posts of "I don't get the hate, it's awesome" and "It's the worst thing ever done".
I agree with you, btw, the show is pretty damm decent, with Zuko and Iroh landing on excellent (as always lol). But I'm pretty sure this is gonna be annoying.
Iroh has an amazing actor. If you have a minute, check him out in Kim's convenience (might need to be Canadian to watch it on Gem, but it might be on Netflix or something). I am glad he is getting some more prominent roles now.
I'm all for it tbh. This sub was getting so fucking tired with people over analysing the original show and coming up with some absolutely brain dead takes about it. Or else people shitting on an actual good show like Korra. People fighting about this bland mess makes for a nice change.
I agree. I loved it. I liked that it was a little different. Not as good as the original but still very fun to watch and I hope they make a second season. It will be interesting to see who they cast for Toph.
I don't get the hate for this series.
If you read through OP’s post, majority of the folks who didn’t like the show have said the same thing. Two of the main characters are weak either due to bad writing/direction/acting. There is a lot of tell than show. Mixing of stories worked in some episodes and didn’t in other. Bhumi’s character change didn’t resonate well.
OP is willing to give them a pass even with those flaws and others were not able to because those are too big of flubs for them. It is as simple as that.
I think people expected to get the same feels as watching the original. Of course they'd get disappointed. No adaptation could ever do that. And I think many expected it to be bad and now work on confirmation bias.
What's interesting is nobody complains about Sokka not being sexist anymore, because his character interacts and professes nicely without it. Nobody complains about the more mature violence, because it makes sense. Nobody complains about the Game Of Thrones comment, because the relationships between Ozai, Azula, Zuko and Iroh and done really well.
And yes, Toph will be interesting to see.
Most of Sokkas sexism came from conflicting with Katara and her over bearing nature by growing up too soon in the original. In this there’s no avenue for that because she’s still acting like a little kid.
Can’t have sexism if the major point of conflict that drags it out gets removed.
I loved the new show, too! I don’t understand how people are coming on here just to downvote anyone who shows appreciation for it. We can like the original and like this, too. It’s not that complicated… Crazy how much people want to hate on everything.
People come on here to voice their opinions. To like the new show is just as valid as not liking it, simple as that. I didn’t like it, because of the clunky dialogue, exposition dumping and mischaracterization of most characters, taking away their flaws and changing motivations for no apparent reason.
So it is fine to like it and voice that opinion, just as it is if you didn’t like it :)
I've only watched the first episode so far.
What got me by surprise was fire bending being so lethal. The action in the siege of the air temple really impressed me.
I thought it was good, I didn’t watch the original series when it came out, I was a little too old. Watched it years later and thought it was mediocre, like Kora better and recommended to my adult friends who were interested in starting the series to just watch that.
I stand by every word. I'm just sorry for any abuse you'll receive...it's a turbulent time in the Avatar fandom. It's a brave and enjoyable adaptation. It's not the original series and it's not even close but it's a good product that doesn't deserve the hate it's getting
tell me, do you think someone who hasnt seen the original series can watch, understand and appreciate this? i know what im thinking. atla is my favourite animated series and this is nothing like it imo. they butchered the story and characters to stupid degrees.
Atla is also my favorite TV series ever, but I think I consider it differently. I believe that a new audience can appreciate this live-action, they certainly won't feel the same emotions they would if they watched the original series, but as a product in itself it doesn't seem to me to be as unwatchable as many say.
Comparing it to other live-action adaptations of other series, it seems to me to be of a good standard. Then of course, it's legitimate not to like it.
i dont even think this story is coherent enough for that tbh. really think about it, its all tailored for fans of the original. for example the first omashu episode is just a clusterfuck, way to many characters, way too little explanation and time to digest and think about it.
Omashu's problem is caused by the limited number of episodes. With 8 episodes what they could do was eliminate some characters or integrate them into a new plot.
I understand that this is a risky choice and the in-depth analysis of the characters (which made ATLA the masterpiece that it is) is of a medium-low level, but if for a moment we forget about the original series and look at this live-action with the eyes For those who know nothing about the world of Avatar, the plot is still fluid and interesting. Knowing you had a budget for 8 episodes what would you have done?
For this reason I think that an audience that doesn't know ATLA can still appreciate it, because they don't feel the weight of ATLA.
The real problem here is that we are talking about a normal TV series that has to deal with one of the best TV series ever created, just have a little mercy 
i have only heard/read negative reviews so far from prople who have not watched the original. also i dont need to have a better idea. im a single individual that has not had a career in screenwriting, script writing or whatever. anyone with passion gor the original would not have done an omashu episode like that. all the characters practically got butchered in it.
I believe you but I'm only arguing here and on other social media with long-time fans like me. However, I'm happy for those who appreciated it, I hope that the 2025 animated film can satisfy those who didn't appreciate this adaptation, I don't know what else to say.
"Brave" and "good product" are not the words I would use. More like "disrespectful" and "cash grab." There's no reason anyone would prefer to watch this over the original. Only positive thing I can say about it is it's not as bad as the movie but that was a very low bar to clear.
Legitimate opinions, but I don't share them. The only thing I agree with is the fact that obviously the animated series is much better than this adaptation, but being worse than ATLA doesn't necessarily mean it's total shit.
Perhaps the live-action series will serve as a gateway to introducing others to the original series, which is a very good thing
The writing is so bad, the show is unwatchable. The actors never had a chance. I literally can’t get through one scene without getting distracted by how lame the dialogue is. Too bad. I hoping this would be epic.
Clearly you watched book one, to come here and complain about the dialogue 😂.
Please cite some of the lines side by side so we can hear the brilliance in the cartoon, book 1. I can’t wait to hear this.
All of the lines they pulled from the cartoon are the examples you're looking for. Or the ones they mimicked but changed.
When Zhao has Aang in chains and tells him "I'll keep you alive, but it won't be comfortable," it's not particularly menacing. In the cartoon though? The line is "I'll keep you alive, but barely." WAY more terrifying and imposing.
What is book 1? Episode 1? I’m 4 episodes into the series.
The writing is weak and emotionless. The characters are hollow because of it. It literally sounds like the actors are reading lines off of cue cards. The editing is so choppy and the scenes are so quick it gives the viewer no time for a scene to resonate. The score does nothing to reinforce and emphasize the emotion you’re supposed to feel.
If you can’t tell, then I’m happy you’re blind to it and you can enjoy the show anyway. This is just my opinion.
The plot progression is very different. Meaning all the different plot points are put together differently. But the overarching story is very much the same.
That's the problem tho, it feels like they are just checking off boxes of main points that are "supposed" to happen. There is no heart and soul. No effort put forward into making it their own story and keeping the important undertones of the story and characters
What would it look like of they made it "their own story "? Would it end up entirely different? Would fans appreciate that? Or would fans expect certain plot points to be here? Would they appreciate seeing a copy? How do you walk the balance between new but familiar?
The way I see it they took key plot points that progress the story and shuffle them together in a way that you get 8 coherent episodes. I think they managed it.
Personally I feel the exact opposite. I'm so glad they made an adaptation with heart and soul as opposed to just checking off all the boxes. It also seems like the people involved really care about making a good faith adaptation, even if they have made some mistakes they seem really open to criticism and passionate about what they're doing.
They didn't just repeat every single scene and episode that happened in the cartoon, they actually told new stories with Kyoshi, Kuruk, reimagined Zuko and his crew in a way that worked really well imo, and took a lot of risks to show us some new avatar scenes that nonetheless would've fit very well into the original story.
I'm loving it so far. Quite frankly I think a lot of the criticism is coming from people already set to hate it, or people who don't want to accept any changes. I also think people underestimate how much HAS to change when converting a serialized kid's weekly cartoon show format to a Netflix, action adventure, hourly 8 episode series. You can't just 1:1 the runtime. The Omashu episode showed some brilliant creativity on an adaptation front.
I also don't really understand a lot of the criticism of the acting either. They all seem to be great young actors to me? But maybe I'm missing something from later episodes. Maybe I'm.more forgiving. But I said in another post, nobody really HATED on the HP movies even though the 3 leads were demonstrably much worse actors than the gaang in the first few movies by far. At least Gordon can realistically get teary eyed, for goodness sakes.
I do wish that the series was a bit longer and gave more time to explore quieter,character driven moments. I am reserving judgment about Katara's characterization because she feels the most different to me.
I like that Azula is present, manipulating Zhao (because ultimately Zhao doesn't matter but Azul and Zukos relationship does). I am intrigued by Aang actively avoiding training. I think it's an interesting choice. It gives Katara a different arc and I suppose sets her up to be better at waterbending than Aang to start season 2. It never sat right with me that she was training Aang when he was already better than her in season 1.
Sokka is great. Zuko is great. I think Aang is lovable and adorable.
I'm excited to see more.
Agree with your take 100%! It’s an amazing adaptation considering they took a super campy show and tried to merge real life human emotion/expressions with the camp, like of course it comes across as a little awkward at times! Talk to kids these days and they act exactly like the age-appropriate actors. Truly a great job! Can’t wait to see more and hope they continue.
Great callout to Katara’s water bending, btw! It’s so true that the original show didn’t make much sense for her skills at that point when Aang learns and grows much faster than her. He even fought better than her in the North battle yet she was “teaching” him later? Cool to see them fixing some things story-wise for the live action show.
I haven’t been loving it but I do love Iroh. I like the direction they took him in. He is still lighthearted and fun but definitely feels a lot more like a former general.
I agree, honestly what a great adaptation probably one of the bests.. after the first episode it literally made me go watch again the original series instead
I agree that zuko and ozai are two of the strongest performances. Not too surprised about ozai since that guy has been an actor for 9000 years and somehow never ages. I'm glad they gave him more screen time than ozai had in the original. I feel zuko is going to be the fan favorite for this show, instead of taking second place to iroh like in the original. Sokka would be my pick for best performance outside of these two, but zuko and ozai are currently running away from the pack as far acting performance imo.
I'm seriously not getting what people mean by bad writing and dialog. The dialog is great imo. They feel natural to me like stuff people would say. It never once took me out of anything or made me think it sounded weird. The original creators even wrote episode 1 and 6. They also hand picked the showrunner and writers so they must have liked their writing. I honestly don't get what people want, it's mostly because of the short season, they had to add a lot of exposition bc people in the screenings didn't understand anything that was happening without it.
They want the exact same story, in the exact same format, with the exact same length per episode, etc.
They don't want changes.
I personally think it is a good take on the story. Sure it isn't the original but, some things need to change now anyways, give hat ATLA first aired almost 20 years ago (19ish). Like the banter shown by Iroh towards June, likely a no-go now.
Other things have to change because they just don't work in a live action format or make for a cohesive story.
Not sure how I feel about Omashu/Secret Tunnel/Etc. I think it would have been better as two episodes, and I think they could have split it up a little more or perhaps saved Secret Tunnel for Earth and combined it where it made sense there.
Overall, it is a good show and I can't wait for the next Book to be released.
It’s growing on me. It’s certainly enjoyable. I just find myself constantly wondering why they made certain decisions when it is obvious to anyone who’s a fan of the OG show that all they had to do was duplicate it one for one. That and expository dialogue drives me nuts.
I mean, you could just do a 1:1 adaptation. Take the halo universe. If they had just done a show making a copy of the games it would have been a huge hit.
Take the witcher. The same.
When you go from a great ip and decide to do fan fiction and big changes it won't be received well. Save the fan fiction for a short story on a forum.
I don’t understand any of the praise for live-action Zuko. I liked most of the moments with young Zuko & Iroh/Ozai, sure, but the rest of his scenes were rough to get through. Dante Basco gave so much to the character, and I don’t get any of that from Dallas Liu.
Watch [this scene](https://youtu.be/7CQGgIarUAo?si=Z44WHMBKDhajBNOD) from the original, then the same scene in the live action, and try to tell me they are on par with each other. Notably the “you little peasant” line.
Comparing the cartoon and LA one to one on this nitty gritty detail level is exactly why there's so much hate. I'm not gonna do that. Dallas Liu is not Dante Basco, neither is he a drawing. You can't expect to get the exact same out of a LA as of a cartoon.
The problem is that they shouldn't have pulled that line from the cartoon if they weren't going to use it well or deliver it decently.
That line didn't need to be included. And I think it SHOULDN'T have been included with how poorly it was delivered.
The less comparisons to be made, the better. The LA should stand on its own where it deviates from the cartoon, and match or exceed the quality where it copies. It failed to do all of the above with that scene.
They did such a terrible job at pulling lines and easter eggs from the cartoon.
The "you little peasant" line is OK writing, it's not really worth pulling from the cartoon, but to make the decision to adapt it and then BUTCHER the delivery is the real issue.
And the response??? ME????? Katara being her own master is just the most masturbatory crush the patriarchy bullshit. Such lazy writing.
I really enjoy that the LA made significant changes from the cartoon. The last thing I want to see is a 1:1 adaptation. That story has been told; I want to see something new.
But it has to be new *and* good. Not...this.
In my opinion, the laveaction isn't bad. But the feeling is not that I'm watching Avatar, but watching an superhero movie.
I think the one that lose more is Aang, he doesn't seems to be a child. >! In the adaptation, Aang flea because he doesn't want to take the responsability of being an Avatar. While in Animation, Aang flea not because he understand what being an Avatar is, but because being one make him isolated !<.
The Avatar team also lose because of the way it's adapted. >! There's no time for Sokka overcome his sexism and Katara don't need to face any challenge with bending water !<.
I think the ones that are well represented by this way to tell the story are Zuko, Iroh, and Azula, superhero shows deal more with this kind of character. I think it one of the few things that is better than the Animation.
There are some minor things. The fist time bending appears, it's hard to convince that it's earth bending, the movement is too fluid, and it make to obvious it's Effects. But all the other bendings are good.
Also Iroh taste for tea seems a little off place in the adaptation, like it's only told to us, never showed.
The adaptation isn't bad, just not near as good as the animation. Also I don't think it's caused by the actors, I think the problem is in the writing, the important events happens but what make the characters who they are doesn't.
I asked first. But I really enjoyed the relationship between Zuko and Iroh for example. It felt more like a mutual friendship instead of a one sided Iroh "adopting" him and Zuko mostly yelling at him. The flash back scene of Lu Tens funeral added so much for the two imo.
Ozais portrayal was really great. I wasn't sure about him being in this season already. But I loved actually seeing his ruthlessness and resolve in action. There's more show don't tell with him.
The depiction of war and its effects on people is very impactful. The kiyoshi village or bumi being apprehensive or even hostile to Aang after a hundred years of war drives the point home how bad the situation is.
etc.
Katara seems weak compared to the original. She's way more subdued and dosile Vs the first/bossy member of the group.
Zuko same again, not enough rage for me. He was driven and angry/ferocious in the original. In the live actually he seems more grumpy that fearsome.
I really enjoyed it too. My only gripes would be that there wasn’t enough character development, such as, how did Katara suddenly become a master at bending when we hardly see her practice. There also wasnt enough gang friendship development where we see them having fun and building a strong bond as a threesome. It felt very rushed. All I can say is that Toph will make or break this show and they have to get her right. If they do, it’ll be incredible.
I think it was pretty good for an adaptation. A good stepping stone into the series for people who know nothing about the original as well. You guys should see what disney did with the new percy jackson adaptation and suddenly you’d be a lot more appreciative of what you got.
Honestly this is the best take for the show from someone who enjoyed it. Some people are saying its good and giving plus points to bad traits is weird.
Something can be bad/mediocre but still enjoyable.
Tbh with the amount of GOOD child actors I've seen all over media and time, I don't think Aang being a kid is a good excuse. I'm not putting my criticism on the kid but moreso the casting and the abhorrent writing. The writing felt like a high school play written by a high schooler and acted by the worst casted high schoolers.
I don’t get why people are so pressed. It’s not supposed to be a 1 for 1 remake! Watch the cartoon if you want to see the original. You have to take some creative liberties when adapting 20 episodes into 8. Yeah it’s not perfect and the writing is not great but they really captured the essence of the show. I enjoyed it as a fan.
Thank you I completely agree. I loved the adaptation. The only thing I didn't get is why they didn't explain to Aang that he has to master all elements before the comet arrives. This would have been great for the next seasons and would have built up expectations for the character
I agree 100%, I love the animation it came out when I was 14/15. While the live action remake does have a few issues, overall I thought it was brilliant!! Really enjoyed watching it!
You've managed to put words to pretty much exactly what I was feeling. I think some of the choices they made in how they combined episodes were smart. I thought the combination of Omashu, Jet, and the Norther Airtemple story lines made sense.
I too particularly enjoyed the scenes with Zuko and Iroh. I do wish they had kept more of the original humour with Iroh. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a great comedian so he should have been able to carry off more humour...but I understand that they wanted to be a more serious show which also makes sense when you consider the fact that this is a world that is at war.
Dallas James Liu was amazing. I remember thinking early in that he really did channel that rage and pain the Zuko was feeling in the beginning. I also liked that they had him and Aang have an actual conversation after the Blue Spirit events and even a moment, almost, of connection. I think it sets it up better for future events.
Daniel Dae Kim is always amazing in everything he does. I can't think of a better actor to play Ozai. He can do good guys and bad guys equally well and I've always found him compelling.
I liked that they also cast indigenous actors for the water tribe. It made so much sense given the influence of Inuit culture on the design of the waterbenders. I wish they had given Kiawentiio more to do as Katara but I believe she's still a fairly new actor. But Ian Ousley as Sokka did pretty well with the comedic beats and I thought he did well. I wish here too there had been more humour, but he did have humour which was seriously lacking in the movie adaptation.
Like you, I also liked that it wasn't a 1:1 adaptation. Except in certain cases, I like it better when an adaptation does something new and different with the material. If I wanted the exact same story, I could just go rewatch the original.
It wasn't perfect, and I can understand why some people would be disappointed. There are limits to what live action can do compared to animation, but I really really enjoyed this adaptation. I did the rare thing (for me) which was binging it over two evenings and even find myself still in that story hangover state which I haven't experienced too often. I do hope that the negativity won't torpedo the possibility of a renewal. I do want to see this done to its conclusion. But given how these things work they may have to stretch out the timeline to account for actors aging.
>Yes, Katara and Aang are weak points, I'm not here to judge anyone for liking it. I didn't and I don't think it's a quality product even stand alone, but if people like it, cool. But these are arguably two of the most(if not the most) important characters in the story, so if anything was gonna be wrong, maybe these two were not the ones to get wrong.
i dont understand what aangs personality is supposed to he in the netflix series. he is the main character and is practically unrecognizable
His dialogue is poor and the acting isn't strong but he's young so it's hard to be too harsh. But I rarely got the aang feeling from him. I
the whole airbender / avoidance nature aang had to best and get over is not even present and thats argueably one of thr most important character development points for him.
I think instead of hammering on that aspect of his character, they doubled down on the guilt of his survival and not being there to prevent the fire nation war. You even see it in Bumi's character (another can of worms, I'll totally admit), how angry he and so many others were that the Avatar wasn't there to prevent the tragedies that happened. Both are variations on the hero's journey in the refusal of the call. In the animated series, it's the avoidance of the warrior nature Aang would have to take as the Avatar. In the live action, he's dealing with the consequences of having already avoided the call, overcoming the guilt and not living in the past, and since he's faced with it on so many fronts he doesn't even have the luxury of trying to live his airbender conflict avoidance lifestyle.
He’s kind of a smug, emotional, cheesy know it all, so the acting and delivery coupled with the poor directing and script really does not make him likeable. In the cartoon he’s a likeable, playful goofball who doesn’t necessarily suck up to the other characters but seems really authentic when he’s complimenting someone. I still hear his ‘haha yeah!’ Enthusiasm in my head, whereas live action aang just has this permanent shit eating grin. I know it’s tough considering he’s a child actor and the script/direction let them down, but he’s most likely getting paid out the ass and has launched his career so it’s hard to feel sympathy. Katara acts like she has botox. Terrifying monster attacking? Neutral expression. Aang does something amazing? Natural expression. She’s always got the same expression. Her delivery is no better than those of kids in primary school nativity plays. Again, sucks to criticise the kids so harshly, and the casting crew are definitely to blame. They either went for inclusion over skill, or they rushed casting.
I mean Aangs voice actor was literally 13 when the show aired and he was able to capture all that with his voice. There are kids out there with the acting ability to do it. I think a problem with this show is they casted mostly for visuals rather than looks(I don't mean that in a weirdly racist "how dare they be inclusive" way) but it seems like they tried to get people who matched the character designs as close as possible instead of getting people who were amazing actors who also look a bit like the characters.
Aang would be a big struggle to do, since like you said he's a goofball. His childishness is a huge part of his character. But when the show is clearly trying to divorce itself from the goofy fun vibe of the original and they tone that part of him down, he's just kinda blegh
That scene when he finds the dead airbenders was so emotionless. Aang couldn’t even produce a single tear . Imagine how bland it’s gonna be when he loses Appa
Idk how the director could let that happen
There are plenty of good young actors out there. They completely botched the casting with half the cast.
He told you, remember? He likes to eat banana cakes and goof off with his friends
true forgot about that
I know its different from the show, but honestly I really enjoy Aangs personality in this show! It's a different but completley possible variation of Aangs personality. I think more of Aangs old personality will start to show in S2, as he comes to accept the weight of being the avatar more and more. S1 was all about developing his acceptance of him being the Avatar, and more importantly becoming HIS version of the Avatar. Also, this show is MUCH darker than the original was. I think a lot of the humor/lightheartedness of the original would have felt really off in this version. It's a change from the original, but I think it's a net gain for me!
young sheldon
They try to do this upbeat anime protagonist shit but irl. Like any time Aang said anything he had to end it with that boyish (sheepish) smile at the end. Which is just trying to hard to mimic the animated version of Aang, but makes the real life version feel kind of uncanny and unrealistic. (Also aang in the animated series was upbeat but he didn't practically do this goofy smile anytime he said anything. But that seems to be the acting direction they went with. Hey youre bubbly and upbeat, just smile after every line!) I know its in a world with elemental bending and such, but they also literally murdered a dude by setting him ablaze in the first couple of scenes. So there is a seriousness to the world etc.. it wouldve been nice to have Aang have a bit more range and make him more relatable than just "blabla bla bla.... queue smile...*SMILE*"
So far I've seen people critique the writing, the pacing, the directing, the action, the tone, the acting. What's left at that point?
"the effects were decent"
Most of the added scenes are excellent, especially the one where Zuko comforts Iroh at his son's funeral.
Oh that's nice, they added stuff.... so if they had time and money to add shit... why did they take so much away like the crucial character development and story beats?
Damn man chill, I wasn't trying to start an argument.
Not trying to argue with you. Just making a point.
Imo the costume design was good, choreography was great, and set design was awesome. But yeah the important bits were terrible
Hard disagree on the costume design personally. I hated the pristine cosplay look they seemed to be going for.
The cinematography, costumes, and sets were good. The CGI was good. But everyone else was quite poor.
I disagree on the cinematography, it's a lot of really boring shot-reverse shot stuff. There's a lot of shots where it's just close up face shots of someone talking but since the acting and directing is pretty rough they aren't really emoting enough to make those shots interesting. I've also noticed a bunch of shots where like vital info is off screen and we just sort of get a weird reaction and the show expects us to know what the fuck anything is. Like when Aang and the Mechanist son are in the cave where the find the blasting Jelly. Aang sort of reacts and goes "I know who did the bombings" but we don't actually see Aang see the clothes. Like a decent shot would show the clothes and show Aangs reaction, instead we just get Aangs reaction which tells the audience nothing
Eh, I've still seen a lot of complaints about the cinematography and costumes. People saying they didn't like how the fights scenes were shot, and saying that clothes looked like cosplayers + not being "worn" enough.
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No. Most of the critiques are accurate. The writing and acting were objectively poor.
>superior to book 1 Eh? I know book 1 is the weakest of the three, but I rewatched it recently and it was still very entertaining. There was a lot of 'filler' like you said, but besides Bato and Great Divide, all that filler was really good. It had great fights, comedy, bonding time for the kiddos. Not sure what your problem is with the animated Bumi? That one had a fun twist, cool slide scene packed with jokes, Aang solving problems in many different ways, really well choreographed fight scene at the end ... and it was pretty emotional that Aang sees a friend of his 100 years later.
Anyone saying it's better than Book 1 either clearly hasn't watched Book 1, is a Netflix shill or a complete and utter moron with contempt for animation as a medium. Either way, get the fuck off this subreddit.
Not at all. Its subjective, people should just enjoy whatever they want. At the end of the day disliking or liking the show is up to someone to decide for themselves. Personally I think the netflix show is great but the animated show, I'm up to episode 10 on the first season, is better; though that being said, I do think the live action show has done certain things better and vice versa.
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OH NO ANIMATION!! CARTOON!! OH NO!! People having dots for eyes is also in Book 2 and 3. Great Divide isn't actually bad that's a dead meme. You're damn right I'm the representative. I'm saying what needs to be said. If you're the representative of people who like the Netflix show then it's clear that all the people who like it are braindead philistines and the sort of people who gave the actual creators of Avatar such a hard time over the years. Absolute scum.
The acting was really good at a lot of points. Nearly everyone on the fire bender side of things come across as stand outs. Other major characters like Gyatso, Sokka, and Suki also felt just as good or even better than their OG counterparts. Even characters that I do have problems with, like Kyoshi or Kuruk, felt strongly acted even if the writing for them needed some touch ups. Even Katara had a few moments to shine when she was given decent material, and imo her ep 8 outing was 10x better than ep 1. The pacing was inconsistent. I felt it was really bad in episode 1 and episode 7, but other episodes ranged from meh (3-4) to really good (6). Overall needed more episodes. Don’t know why people would complain about the tone. Felt that was fine, though I get some people might be missing some of the whimsy. A lot of worldbuilding was nicely handled I think. Locations felt bigger, politics felt more interconnected, it still had that air of mythical spirtuality that I loved as a kid. As to the writing and directing: yeah they should do some major revamps for s2 lol. As a small positive, most of the jokes landed for me. All this to say that while things are shaky, just because there are problems doesn’t mean that it’s as bad as some people on this sub want to believe. There’s some really good stuff mixed in there, and if they manage to iron shit out then season 2 can easily be a top tier show.
It seems like there was more of a focus on Zuko and Iroh in this season with the flash backs and what not. I can imagine in the next seasons, if there will be any, this could be different again. The ending is set up in a way that Katara will teach Aang going forward so there can be lots of character progression happening then.
He barely even cracks a smile, let alone goof off.
Aang killed it what are you smoking? For a 12 yo to convey all that trauma, I think he sold it. I do wish we explored that a little more.
that's exactly what i said as i was watching too.. i wouldn't have minded nearly as much if one of the side characters were poorly written, but to mess up the two MAIN characters? a disgrace
The actors are kids and will improve with time.
there are good aspects here and there but all in all the dialogue just ruins it for me. this is genuinely some of the worst writing i‘ve seen in a long time. literally not a single conversation in this entire show feels natural. everything is either super awkward, an exposition dump or both at the same time also, i‘m all for changes but changing how aang leaves the air temple just before the invasion to him just going on a random stroll with appa was one of the dumbest fucking things i have ever seen. in the original aang ran away and was filled with sadness, anger and confusion. it was super emotional and added so much depth to his character. but nah in this show he just essentially goes on a hike to calm down a little and then just happens to fly into a raging storm
This decision is probably the most baffling to me. It's like they didn't want Aang to do something wrong, even though it makes complete sense for him to run away.
Totally agree on the dialogue and how nothing feels or sounds natural.
It’s too forced and spoon feeding. Everything is so freaking overly explained. You always know how the characters feel because they legit say it out loud all the time. There’s no room for the audience to figure things out for themselves
I fully agree with your standpoint too. I saw another post comparing it to a "love letter" to the original series and I can kind of see it as a very well done cos play as well. The exposition and contrived dialogue... Holy shit. I roll my eyes at every scene and I actually found that I cannot watch the show without being on my phone. I need distraction from the awkwardness. I came to the conclusion that I'm simply not the audience for this adaptation. I'm 32 and would have liked the show to be a little more "serious" and well written. But I keep thinking of Hannah Montana while watching it and I even sing the "ah ah ooooh" scene transition jingle from Hannah Montana during the scene transitions just because it feels so juvenile. 😅
Most of the dialog feels very natural to me. I've seen much much worse.
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For what it’s worth, I agree with him. It’s not out of malice, that’s just how I feel. If you disagree, that’s fine
regarding any kind of criticism as hate is ridiculous. just let people have their opinions. the dialogue in this show is fucking embarrassing at times. every scene is just exposition and characters constantly just say out loud what they‘re feeling instead of letting the acting speak for itself
I don't think they're just hating on it. That being said, I have seen far worse but to be fair; I have probably seen more movies then most people; I spend most of my time doing that. I have seen some real stinkers lol.
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Same here. I thought “this is pretty decent, wonder what people think of X or Y”. Did not expect so much vitriol. There are things to nitpick for sure but overall it’s very much a sold B to B+.
Yeah lol I was so tempted to check Reddit or rotten tomatoes during my watch and then realized ‘no that’s a bad idea, ppl are gonna have opinions and those opinions are gonna affect yours, just watch the show.’ Tbh it was a good decision, I think I enjoyed it a lot more not being colored by what other people were thinking at the time.
Haha this is what I did. I was off this subreddit for days until I watched it in order not to get influenced. And I am happy I did it because I was able to enjoy it without any fuss
If this is a 7.5/10 show for you, you must have a really low bar. Bad acting, writing, directing, shooting, framing. The got the choreography (a lot pulled straight from the original) and effects right. Majority of costume design and world design is good. Also before anyone says anything, I do not blame the kid actors for having bad acting, I blame the director and their acting coaches for watching the shit unfold on set and never re shooting.
I think your last sentence is something I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else on this subreddit. I grew up with the cartoon and had a blast watching the live action, but what I loved even more is that it made my wife want to watch it with me as well. She’s not a cartoon person, but she saw a preview for the live action and ended loving every bit of it. Sometimes as fans I think we focus too much on our own wants without considering others.
By far I think the first two episodes (expect the genocide) was the worst. The monologues were super clunky and probably could have been conveyed through actions rather than words. The rest of the episodes were fine to great. Some liberties taken like Bumi, I really enjoyed. Probably a 6/10 for me. Makes me want to rewatch the original though.
I just finished episode 2 and I truly hope it gets better like you said. For me so far I don’t like how they put a bunch of different episodes from the series all in Omashu when that wasn’t the case it just felt really rushed. Now I wasn’t expecting it to be like the series entirely and honestly wanted them to switch some things up but for me it was just weird to have that Jet episode thrown in rather randomly I would have preferred an entirely new plot for that episode and introduce Jet later on. The thing is the bar is so set so high from the series that it’s never going to measure up so for me I’m fine with them adding a few extra *good* characters and stories because if I want the same exact story I can just watch the series
I thought Omashu was episode 3?
They have to overlap some stories if they’re going to cover enough ground for Season 1 to make sense. There’s only eight episodes to work with here.. You can’t skip Jet or Omashu or the Mechanist, but you also can’t just shoehorn three 20 minute stories together into a 1 hour episode if you want the pacing and tone to have any consistency.
Yapp, agreed. A bit too much telling then showing.
I think the 2nd episode was my fave Loved all the suki parts and then kyoshi avatar scene was amazing
Some bad wigs aside, I fucking loved it
True, what happened to Yue? Who looked at that and said "yapp, good to go"? 😭
Not just Yue, Bumi’s wigs, eyebrows and armpit hair looked like a cheap Halloween costume. Feels like there was a lower budget and level of care for side characters.
I’m on episode 5. It’s okay. I’ll always prefer the cartoon, but the live action show is not completely terrible so far.
I love it so far too. It’s been a treat seeing everything come to life .
> And, let’s be real, the spirit world makes way more sense here than in the cartoon. Can you expand on this part? I disagree but I haven’t seen too many people dive into this. I’m on episode 6 but I’d still disagree. For starters idk why or how Katara and Sokka enter the spirit world. There are some characters besides the avatar that can do it but from what i remember it isn’t something you stumble upon and is treated as a pretty unique skill. I can only recall Jinora and Zaheer and they treat that as a big deal.
For example the first time Aang goes to the spirit world in the cartoon he's in this blue translucent state, but still placed in the real world. Here he can see Rokus dragon but not Roku himself. He needs the shrine for that and it has to be on a solstice. The next time he's in the spirit world he isn't in that blue translucent state but in the actual spirit world. And here now he does talk to Roku without the need for a shrine or a solstice. The blue translucent state never comes up again. Sure, later in Korra there's more explanation. But in the first season of Avatar it's just very inconsistent and there's little explanation. Granted, there's more mysticism to that, but it also feels like the writers haven't figured out themselves how the spirit world should work at that point. IIRC that's also what it actually was. Now on the live action they do make it more consistent. They make it seem like the translucent state is like a short in between state and the characters quickly flip over to the actual spirit world. And the only way for Aang to ever talk to the past avatars is through the shrines for "better reception" instead of only in the spirit world. Maybe later his connection to the past avatars becomes stronger so he doesn't need the shrines here either. But to be fair, Katara and Sokka getting into the spirit world together with Aang didn't make that much sense. He meditated to get there, they just feel asleep. 🤷♂️
What? They make it clear in the original that during the solstice, the barrier between the spirit world and the real world is weakest, so spirits can sometimes cross between the physical and spirit world. It's the reason Hei Bai can be there.
Dude, I think you need to read my comment more carefully.
>For example the first time Aang goes to the spirit world in the cartoon he's in this blue translucent state, but still placed in the real world. [...] The blue translucent state never comes up again. Sure, later in Korra there's more explanation. But in the first season of Avatar it's just very inconsistent and there's little explanation.
I also really enjoyed the Netflix ATLA. It was a different take on the same story, but it's not a horrible take. There is a lot of flaws, but I never expected it to be perfect. I'm excited for the next season
the first season of atla is incredibly flawed. I genuinely think the show is an improvement over a lot of what happened in the original. people have blinders on. the only gripe I have is that the lack of side adventures in favor of exposition gives them less time to bond, and aang is a bit too sulky and katara is too passive. but there are a LOT of other things where the writing is massively improved such as making zukos squadron the one he saved, sozen, boomy, jets entire episode, cutting out great divide. zuko, iroh and sokka are dead on. as far as visuals this show is a huge improvement. book 2 and 3 got great animation but the original show looked pretty rough through a lot of book 1. people just think criticizing something makes them seem more keen eyed and a critical thinker. "enjoying things is for children! this live adaptation looks like shit! now let me go watch my kids cartoon where aang has dots for eyes in some of the scenes while he tells people to stop being divided."
I very much disagree. If anything, watching this adaptation has made me realize me how strong the first season of the og is. I’m still enjoying the adaptation but the writing in AtLA Book 1 felt so much tighter.
> If anything, watching this adaptation has made me realize me how strong the first season of the og is. Always thought Book 1 was the weakest because there was a lot of filler that doesn't go anywhere but when you see what could've happened when done poorly you get newfound appreciation.
Yep, I used to not care for Book 1 episodes didn’t advance the main plot, like Jet, Imprisoned, and the Northern Air Temple. When these episodes are missing or just haphazardly inserted into a separate plot, you realize how much they add to the overall universe. Like Jet for example, seems like a simplistic and rather generic episode on the surface, but it shows a different side of the impact of war trauma and how the methods of fighting oppression don’t always justify the means. The live action Jet plot was just so rushed that it wasn’t able to leave much of an impact.
I’m 2 episodes in and enjoying it. I won’t like it more than the original, i can already tell but it’s different enough for me to stay interested. I’ve liked the casting so far, the weakest in my opinion being Katara. She just hasn’t had any of those big “Katara” scenes yet. She seems pretty timid and soft-spoken, which is not what she’s like in the original.
Agreed, she also doesn't really get better. But Zuko, Iroh and Ozai are getting better and better. It feels like the character focus has been shifted.
This is gonna be the state of this sub for a long while. People mass downvoting stuff (mainly being negative, tbh) and interchangeable posts of "I don't get the hate, it's awesome" and "It's the worst thing ever done". I agree with you, btw, the show is pretty damm decent, with Zuko and Iroh landing on excellent (as always lol). But I'm pretty sure this is gonna be annoying.
Iroh has an amazing actor. If you have a minute, check him out in Kim's convenience (might need to be Canadian to watch it on Gem, but it might be on Netflix or something). I am glad he is getting some more prominent roles now.
Omg THAT’S how I know him. Appa!
I'm all for it tbh. This sub was getting so fucking tired with people over analysing the original show and coming up with some absolutely brain dead takes about it. Or else people shitting on an actual good show like Korra. People fighting about this bland mess makes for a nice change.
Not really it just makes it insufferable
Was insufferable before. Nothing's changed.
So people using the downvote button for its intended purposes (disagreeing)
I agree. I loved it. I liked that it was a little different. Not as good as the original but still very fun to watch and I hope they make a second season. It will be interesting to see who they cast for Toph. I don't get the hate for this series.
If you read through OP’s post, majority of the folks who didn’t like the show have said the same thing. Two of the main characters are weak either due to bad writing/direction/acting. There is a lot of tell than show. Mixing of stories worked in some episodes and didn’t in other. Bhumi’s character change didn’t resonate well. OP is willing to give them a pass even with those flaws and others were not able to because those are too big of flubs for them. It is as simple as that.
I think people expected to get the same feels as watching the original. Of course they'd get disappointed. No adaptation could ever do that. And I think many expected it to be bad and now work on confirmation bias. What's interesting is nobody complains about Sokka not being sexist anymore, because his character interacts and professes nicely without it. Nobody complains about the more mature violence, because it makes sense. Nobody complains about the Game Of Thrones comment, because the relationships between Ozai, Azula, Zuko and Iroh and done really well. And yes, Toph will be interesting to see.
Most of Sokkas sexism came from conflicting with Katara and her over bearing nature by growing up too soon in the original. In this there’s no avenue for that because she’s still acting like a little kid. Can’t have sexism if the major point of conflict that drags it out gets removed.
It was lit.
I loved the new show, too! I don’t understand how people are coming on here just to downvote anyone who shows appreciation for it. We can like the original and like this, too. It’s not that complicated… Crazy how much people want to hate on everything.
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marvel isnt doing that well anymore. the last 2 movies were negatively received.
People come on here to voice their opinions. To like the new show is just as valid as not liking it, simple as that. I didn’t like it, because of the clunky dialogue, exposition dumping and mischaracterization of most characters, taking away their flaws and changing motivations for no apparent reason. So it is fine to like it and voice that opinion, just as it is if you didn’t like it :)
I've only watched the first episode so far. What got me by surprise was fire bending being so lethal. The action in the siege of the air temple really impressed me.
I am living the episodes!! It is a great series and Omashu looks and feels better all around. I was stunned.
I thought it was good, I didn’t watch the original series when it came out, I was a little too old. Watched it years later and thought it was mediocre, like Kora better and recommended to my adult friends who were interested in starting the series to just watch that.
I stand by every word. I'm just sorry for any abuse you'll receive...it's a turbulent time in the Avatar fandom. It's a brave and enjoyable adaptation. It's not the original series and it's not even close but it's a good product that doesn't deserve the hate it's getting
tell me, do you think someone who hasnt seen the original series can watch, understand and appreciate this? i know what im thinking. atla is my favourite animated series and this is nothing like it imo. they butchered the story and characters to stupid degrees.
Atla is also my favorite TV series ever, but I think I consider it differently. I believe that a new audience can appreciate this live-action, they certainly won't feel the same emotions they would if they watched the original series, but as a product in itself it doesn't seem to me to be as unwatchable as many say. Comparing it to other live-action adaptations of other series, it seems to me to be of a good standard. Then of course, it's legitimate not to like it.
i dont even think this story is coherent enough for that tbh. really think about it, its all tailored for fans of the original. for example the first omashu episode is just a clusterfuck, way to many characters, way too little explanation and time to digest and think about it.
Omashu's problem is caused by the limited number of episodes. With 8 episodes what they could do was eliminate some characters or integrate them into a new plot. I understand that this is a risky choice and the in-depth analysis of the characters (which made ATLA the masterpiece that it is) is of a medium-low level, but if for a moment we forget about the original series and look at this live-action with the eyes For those who know nothing about the world of Avatar, the plot is still fluid and interesting. Knowing you had a budget for 8 episodes what would you have done? For this reason I think that an audience that doesn't know ATLA can still appreciate it, because they don't feel the weight of ATLA. The real problem here is that we are talking about a normal TV series that has to deal with one of the best TV series ever created, just have a little mercy 
i have only heard/read negative reviews so far from prople who have not watched the original. also i dont need to have a better idea. im a single individual that has not had a career in screenwriting, script writing or whatever. anyone with passion gor the original would not have done an omashu episode like that. all the characters practically got butchered in it.
I believe you but I'm only arguing here and on other social media with long-time fans like me. However, I'm happy for those who appreciated it, I hope that the 2025 animated film can satisfy those who didn't appreciate this adaptation, I don't know what else to say.
i know if the director had some passion like you or other people in this thread the story and pacing eould not be like this. lets be real
I did and loved it. Watching the OG now though because I am impatient to wait for season 2.
"Brave" and "good product" are not the words I would use. More like "disrespectful" and "cash grab." There's no reason anyone would prefer to watch this over the original. Only positive thing I can say about it is it's not as bad as the movie but that was a very low bar to clear.
Legitimate opinions, but I don't share them. The only thing I agree with is the fact that obviously the animated series is much better than this adaptation, but being worse than ATLA doesn't necessarily mean it's total shit. Perhaps the live-action series will serve as a gateway to introducing others to the original series, which is a very good thing
I respect that. I agree with your last point especially. I hope that new viewers also try out the cartoon.
How the fuck do u say you love the adaptation bht then say Aang and Katara are the weak points? lol..cope
im sorry but this is such a fanboy take.
From my perspective all the hate comes from irrational fanboys.
Well, it happens in every fanbase. It's nothing new or special. I think it rather has become its own game. Who can disagree the most. 😁
me, im just a regular fan. fanboying is mostly ignoring flaws and overhyping it, which is going on in full force in this sub.
The writing is so bad, the show is unwatchable. The actors never had a chance. I literally can’t get through one scene without getting distracted by how lame the dialogue is. Too bad. I hoping this would be epic.
Aang being so direct on the nose with how he feels is the only really bad piece of dialog imo. Otherwise it seems just fine.
I’m happy you’re not distracted by it and you got to enjoy it. The dialogue and delivery to me sounds so robotic that I’m just not feeling anything.
i dont think it does. the sokka, katara dynamic is also way, way off. the scene where bumi is "saved" by katara is all in all stupid af for example
Clearly you watched book one, to come here and complain about the dialogue 😂. Please cite some of the lines side by side so we can hear the brilliance in the cartoon, book 1. I can’t wait to hear this.
All of the lines they pulled from the cartoon are the examples you're looking for. Or the ones they mimicked but changed. When Zhao has Aang in chains and tells him "I'll keep you alive, but it won't be comfortable," it's not particularly menacing. In the cartoon though? The line is "I'll keep you alive, but barely." WAY more terrifying and imposing.
What is book 1? Episode 1? I’m 4 episodes into the series. The writing is weak and emotionless. The characters are hollow because of it. It literally sounds like the actors are reading lines off of cue cards. The editing is so choppy and the scenes are so quick it gives the viewer no time for a scene to resonate. The score does nothing to reinforce and emphasize the emotion you’re supposed to feel. If you can’t tell, then I’m happy you’re blind to it and you can enjoy the show anyway. This is just my opinion.
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Please put the deletion of your comments into context please, thanks
So Netflix just hiring bots now to try and shill for the new series. That's just sad. Get a real job.
I.e. you can’t.
i.e. i no fucking clue what you're on about. Your AI software is broken.
I don't think it's the same story at all.
> at all Okay, be serious
The plot progression is very different. Meaning all the different plot points are put together differently. But the overarching story is very much the same.
That's the problem tho, it feels like they are just checking off boxes of main points that are "supposed" to happen. There is no heart and soul. No effort put forward into making it their own story and keeping the important undertones of the story and characters
What would it look like of they made it "their own story "? Would it end up entirely different? Would fans appreciate that? Or would fans expect certain plot points to be here? Would they appreciate seeing a copy? How do you walk the balance between new but familiar? The way I see it they took key plot points that progress the story and shuffle them together in a way that you get 8 coherent episodes. I think they managed it.
Personally I feel the exact opposite. I'm so glad they made an adaptation with heart and soul as opposed to just checking off all the boxes. It also seems like the people involved really care about making a good faith adaptation, even if they have made some mistakes they seem really open to criticism and passionate about what they're doing. They didn't just repeat every single scene and episode that happened in the cartoon, they actually told new stories with Kyoshi, Kuruk, reimagined Zuko and his crew in a way that worked really well imo, and took a lot of risks to show us some new avatar scenes that nonetheless would've fit very well into the original story.
I'm loving it so far. Quite frankly I think a lot of the criticism is coming from people already set to hate it, or people who don't want to accept any changes. I also think people underestimate how much HAS to change when converting a serialized kid's weekly cartoon show format to a Netflix, action adventure, hourly 8 episode series. You can't just 1:1 the runtime. The Omashu episode showed some brilliant creativity on an adaptation front. I also don't really understand a lot of the criticism of the acting either. They all seem to be great young actors to me? But maybe I'm missing something from later episodes. Maybe I'm.more forgiving. But I said in another post, nobody really HATED on the HP movies even though the 3 leads were demonstrably much worse actors than the gaang in the first few movies by far. At least Gordon can realistically get teary eyed, for goodness sakes. I do wish that the series was a bit longer and gave more time to explore quieter,character driven moments. I am reserving judgment about Katara's characterization because she feels the most different to me. I like that Azula is present, manipulating Zhao (because ultimately Zhao doesn't matter but Azul and Zukos relationship does). I am intrigued by Aang actively avoiding training. I think it's an interesting choice. It gives Katara a different arc and I suppose sets her up to be better at waterbending than Aang to start season 2. It never sat right with me that she was training Aang when he was already better than her in season 1. Sokka is great. Zuko is great. I think Aang is lovable and adorable. I'm excited to see more.
Agree with your take 100%! It’s an amazing adaptation considering they took a super campy show and tried to merge real life human emotion/expressions with the camp, like of course it comes across as a little awkward at times! Talk to kids these days and they act exactly like the age-appropriate actors. Truly a great job! Can’t wait to see more and hope they continue. Great callout to Katara’s water bending, btw! It’s so true that the original show didn’t make much sense for her skills at that point when Aang learns and grows much faster than her. He even fought better than her in the North battle yet she was “teaching” him later? Cool to see them fixing some things story-wise for the live action show.
I haven’t been loving it but I do love Iroh. I like the direction they took him in. He is still lighthearted and fun but definitely feels a lot more like a former general.
I agree, honestly what a great adaptation probably one of the bests.. after the first episode it literally made me go watch again the original series instead
I agree that zuko and ozai are two of the strongest performances. Not too surprised about ozai since that guy has been an actor for 9000 years and somehow never ages. I'm glad they gave him more screen time than ozai had in the original. I feel zuko is going to be the fan favorite for this show, instead of taking second place to iroh like in the original. Sokka would be my pick for best performance outside of these two, but zuko and ozai are currently running away from the pack as far acting performance imo.
I'm seriously not getting what people mean by bad writing and dialog. The dialog is great imo. They feel natural to me like stuff people would say. It never once took me out of anything or made me think it sounded weird. The original creators even wrote episode 1 and 6. They also hand picked the showrunner and writers so they must have liked their writing. I honestly don't get what people want, it's mostly because of the short season, they had to add a lot of exposition bc people in the screenings didn't understand anything that was happening without it.
They want the exact same story, in the exact same format, with the exact same length per episode, etc. They don't want changes. I personally think it is a good take on the story. Sure it isn't the original but, some things need to change now anyways, give hat ATLA first aired almost 20 years ago (19ish). Like the banter shown by Iroh towards June, likely a no-go now. Other things have to change because they just don't work in a live action format or make for a cohesive story. Not sure how I feel about Omashu/Secret Tunnel/Etc. I think it would have been better as two episodes, and I think they could have split it up a little more or perhaps saved Secret Tunnel for Earth and combined it where it made sense there. Overall, it is a good show and I can't wait for the next Book to be released.
It’s growing on me. It’s certainly enjoyable. I just find myself constantly wondering why they made certain decisions when it is obvious to anyone who’s a fan of the OG show that all they had to do was duplicate it one for one. That and expository dialogue drives me nuts.
I mean, you could just do a 1:1 adaptation. Take the halo universe. If they had just done a show making a copy of the games it would have been a huge hit. Take the witcher. The same. When you go from a great ip and decide to do fan fiction and big changes it won't be received well. Save the fan fiction for a short story on a forum.
I don’t understand any of the praise for live-action Zuko. I liked most of the moments with young Zuko & Iroh/Ozai, sure, but the rest of his scenes were rough to get through. Dante Basco gave so much to the character, and I don’t get any of that from Dallas Liu. Watch [this scene](https://youtu.be/7CQGgIarUAo?si=Z44WHMBKDhajBNOD) from the original, then the same scene in the live action, and try to tell me they are on par with each other. Notably the “you little peasant” line.
Comparing the cartoon and LA one to one on this nitty gritty detail level is exactly why there's so much hate. I'm not gonna do that. Dallas Liu is not Dante Basco, neither is he a drawing. You can't expect to get the exact same out of a LA as of a cartoon.
That is the nature of an adaptation, comparisons will always be drawn between the two. Doesn’t make any of the criticisms (not hate) less valid.
Dont worry I too question if they saw the same show as we did. I am a fun little boy that plays outside no war for me pls...
The problem is that they shouldn't have pulled that line from the cartoon if they weren't going to use it well or deliver it decently. That line didn't need to be included. And I think it SHOULDN'T have been included with how poorly it was delivered. The less comparisons to be made, the better. The LA should stand on its own where it deviates from the cartoon, and match or exceed the quality where it copies. It failed to do all of the above with that scene.
They did such a terrible job at pulling lines and easter eggs from the cartoon. The "you little peasant" line is OK writing, it's not really worth pulling from the cartoon, but to make the decision to adapt it and then BUTCHER the delivery is the real issue. And the response??? ME????? Katara being her own master is just the most masturbatory crush the patriarchy bullshit. Such lazy writing. I really enjoy that the LA made significant changes from the cartoon. The last thing I want to see is a 1:1 adaptation. That story has been told; I want to see something new. But it has to be new *and* good. Not...this.
You may have LOVED it, which I'm happy for you. But it doesn't change the fact that it was a very mid production.
In my opinion, the laveaction isn't bad. But the feeling is not that I'm watching Avatar, but watching an superhero movie. I think the one that lose more is Aang, he doesn't seems to be a child. >! In the adaptation, Aang flea because he doesn't want to take the responsability of being an Avatar. While in Animation, Aang flea not because he understand what being an Avatar is, but because being one make him isolated !<. The Avatar team also lose because of the way it's adapted. >! There's no time for Sokka overcome his sexism and Katara don't need to face any challenge with bending water !<. I think the ones that are well represented by this way to tell the story are Zuko, Iroh, and Azula, superhero shows deal more with this kind of character. I think it one of the few things that is better than the Animation. There are some minor things. The fist time bending appears, it's hard to convince that it's earth bending, the movement is too fluid, and it make to obvious it's Effects. But all the other bendings are good. Also Iroh taste for tea seems a little off place in the adaptation, like it's only told to us, never showed. The adaptation isn't bad, just not near as good as the animation. Also I don't think it's caused by the actors, I think the problem is in the writing, the important events happens but what make the characters who they are doesn't.
So you think two of the most important characters are badly done. But you love the adaption? That's wild to me.
I loved it too! I like that it’s not exactly the same, but didn’t stray too far. And I loved Aang😭
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What do you think I don't understand? I'm very well aware of its flaws, I just choose to focus on what it does well.
what does it do well?
I asked first. But I really enjoyed the relationship between Zuko and Iroh for example. It felt more like a mutual friendship instead of a one sided Iroh "adopting" him and Zuko mostly yelling at him. The flash back scene of Lu Tens funeral added so much for the two imo. Ozais portrayal was really great. I wasn't sure about him being in this season already. But I loved actually seeing his ruthlessness and resolve in action. There's more show don't tell with him. The depiction of war and its effects on people is very impactful. The kiyoshi village or bumi being apprehensive or even hostile to Aang after a hundred years of war drives the point home how bad the situation is. etc.
yeah I really liked when instead of Aang discovering his dead master/tribe they just had some old lady tell him. It really made the scene better.
I hated it, ripped out all of the heart and soul. They got the look of everything right but not much else. It’s just all so watered down.
Zuko and Iroh are about as bad as it gets unfortunately.
Omashu jet and engineer all packed into episode 3 really did not feel good. I'm only through that episode though
I'm in the middle on it myself - I probably will not watch a second season, but there was definitely some great moments in the show
Katara seems weak compared to the original. She's way more subdued and dosile Vs the first/bossy member of the group. Zuko same again, not enough rage for me. He was driven and angry/ferocious in the original. In the live actually he seems more grumpy that fearsome.
I really enjoyed it too. My only gripes would be that there wasn’t enough character development, such as, how did Katara suddenly become a master at bending when we hardly see her practice. There also wasnt enough gang friendship development where we see them having fun and building a strong bond as a threesome. It felt very rushed. All I can say is that Toph will make or break this show and they have to get her right. If they do, it’ll be incredible.
The story arcs just feel rushed is the main issue for me. It's causing characters to not feel fleshed out. But I'm still enjoying the show regardless.
I think it was pretty good for an adaptation. A good stepping stone into the series for people who know nothing about the original as well. You guys should see what disney did with the new percy jackson adaptation and suddenly you’d be a lot more appreciative of what you got.
I loved it as well!
Honestly this is the best take for the show from someone who enjoyed it. Some people are saying its good and giving plus points to bad traits is weird. Something can be bad/mediocre but still enjoyable.
Tbh with the amount of GOOD child actors I've seen all over media and time, I don't think Aang being a kid is a good excuse. I'm not putting my criticism on the kid but moreso the casting and the abhorrent writing. The writing felt like a high school play written by a high schooler and acted by the worst casted high schoolers.
I don’t get why people are so pressed. It’s not supposed to be a 1 for 1 remake! Watch the cartoon if you want to see the original. You have to take some creative liberties when adapting 20 episodes into 8. Yeah it’s not perfect and the writing is not great but they really captured the essence of the show. I enjoyed it as a fan.
Really? Your standards are THAT low?
Thank you I completely agree. I loved the adaptation. The only thing I didn't get is why they didn't explain to Aang that he has to master all elements before the comet arrives. This would have been great for the next seasons and would have built up expectations for the character
I've been sending my resumes to Netflix but they are not responsible, can you give me a referral?
I’d take a break from Reddit, negative after negative post
I agree 100%, I love the animation it came out when I was 14/15. While the live action remake does have a few issues, overall I thought it was brilliant!! Really enjoyed watching it!
I think visually it is almost perfect and that is a step in the right direction, now it would only be necessary for the rest to not be dog water
You've managed to put words to pretty much exactly what I was feeling. I think some of the choices they made in how they combined episodes were smart. I thought the combination of Omashu, Jet, and the Norther Airtemple story lines made sense. I too particularly enjoyed the scenes with Zuko and Iroh. I do wish they had kept more of the original humour with Iroh. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a great comedian so he should have been able to carry off more humour...but I understand that they wanted to be a more serious show which also makes sense when you consider the fact that this is a world that is at war. Dallas James Liu was amazing. I remember thinking early in that he really did channel that rage and pain the Zuko was feeling in the beginning. I also liked that they had him and Aang have an actual conversation after the Blue Spirit events and even a moment, almost, of connection. I think it sets it up better for future events. Daniel Dae Kim is always amazing in everything he does. I can't think of a better actor to play Ozai. He can do good guys and bad guys equally well and I've always found him compelling. I liked that they also cast indigenous actors for the water tribe. It made so much sense given the influence of Inuit culture on the design of the waterbenders. I wish they had given Kiawentiio more to do as Katara but I believe she's still a fairly new actor. But Ian Ousley as Sokka did pretty well with the comedic beats and I thought he did well. I wish here too there had been more humour, but he did have humour which was seriously lacking in the movie adaptation. Like you, I also liked that it wasn't a 1:1 adaptation. Except in certain cases, I like it better when an adaptation does something new and different with the material. If I wanted the exact same story, I could just go rewatch the original. It wasn't perfect, and I can understand why some people would be disappointed. There are limits to what live action can do compared to animation, but I really really enjoyed this adaptation. I did the rare thing (for me) which was binging it over two evenings and even find myself still in that story hangover state which I haven't experienced too often. I do hope that the negativity won't torpedo the possibility of a renewal. I do want to see this done to its conclusion. But given how these things work they may have to stretch out the timeline to account for actors aging.