Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action show on Netflix (now sans its creators).

[ASOIAFrelatedusername]

7 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

The writing Is lazy though…they had the entire source material ready for them, they just took the best moments and inserted them into the show without establishing any logical sense. Didn’t earn them at all.

Yes what they did didn't work, but I don't think you could call what they, for example, did with Jet and The Nothern Air Temple "lazy". What they did with Bumi wasn't "lazy", just completely at odds with the source material. Even their Cave of Two (hopefully not) Lovers had a purpose behind them besides providing a cheap callback. The only really lazy parts imo are the stuff with Hei Bai, Koh and Roku. That felt like pointless filler designed as cheap fan appeal. That and the absence of The Waterbending Scroll, but that might have been because they didn't have enough episodes to work.

Edited March 7 by ASOIAFrelatedusername

[sifth]

15 hours ago, ASOIAFrelatedusername said:

"Lazy" is not what I would call this show despite my many many gripes with it. They clearly put a lot of effort into certain aspects of it.

I don't know, more than half this show feels like it was filmed in front of a green screen.

[karaddin]

I think it was another "The Volume" style set up? But with bonus green screen right behind the actors for the bending shots. I've got to say on the whole the Volume isn't working for me most of the time it's used. It has some merits, but the limitations it comes with seem to wind up outweighing the advantages most of the time. The Batman is the exception but that had more money to play with and did a lot with lighting separate from it.

I don't think "lazy" is a reasonable critique for it, even for using the same music - I think that's based in believing that would work better for fans since the original score is great - even though that choice didn't work for me.

[ASOIAFrelatedusername]

6 hours ago, sifth said:

I don't know, more than half this show feels like it was filmed in front of a green screen.

That might be because of budget restrictions. That is not something I can blame the creative people for.

[Kalbear]

I don't exactly think it's lazy, but it is shallow. It apes the events and the characters of the cartoon without understanding what made them special or interesting or enjoyable, and the result is a weird combination of nostalgia and uncanny valley. There are some times that, say, Sokka being clever or funny or self-deprecating show up, and then it goes to something else. You get people literally burned alive and in the next scene you get joyous silliness about Sokka being a mute. 

It reminds me a lot of Rise of Skywalker in that they clearly are trying to trigger the knowledge of a previous series and get you into it that way, but miss out on all the other things that make it work. 

[Liffguard]

13 hours ago, Kalbear said:

I don't exactly think it's lazy, but it is shallow. It apes the events and the characters of the cartoon without understanding what made them special or interesting or enjoyable, and the result is a weird combination of nostalgia and uncanny valley. There are some times that, say, Sokka being clever or funny or self-deprecating show up, and then it goes to something else. You get people literally burned alive and in the next scene you get joyous silliness about Sokka being a mute. 

It reminds me a lot of Rise of Skywalker in that they clearly are trying to trigger the knowledge of a previous series and get you into it that way, but miss out on all the other things that make it work. 

Cargo cult storytelling. Trying to imitate the form of the original story without understanding the underlying mechanics.

[sifth]

2 hours ago, Liffguard said:

Cargo cult storytelling. Trying to imitate the form of the original story without understanding the underlying mechanics.

I always feel the best remakes, are when you take something bad and make it better. When you take something great and try to remake it, you're almost always going to create something inferior and you're going to have your reason for creating your project to begin with questioned.

[ASOIAFrelatedusername]

So I watched episode 7 and "shallow" continues to be a really apt descriptor of the show for both the Fire Nation f and the Water tribe subplots and the absence of The Waterbending Scroll ripples further throughout the show.

Fire Nation

Spoiler

So Zhao just outright tries to arrest Zuko. There is no scene of him putting two and two together while conscripting Zuko's crew with Zuko also realizing that. No deception and assassination attempts. I mean it wasn't particularly complex in the original, but it was more than this. Of course they cannot use the pirates since The Waterbending Scroll has been cut. Here Iroh blames the attack on Ozai in front of Zhao. I don't know that is supposed to make sense. And why does Zhao even bother with the charade in the first place when he has already Ozai's backing in that plan? And why blow up the escape boat?

I already know that the "destiny" that Zhao speaks of is some sort of special knife. Again a downgrade from the original and this time an unneeded one. Seriously why not foreshadow the library stuff here? Are they going to cut that too?

And speaking of downgrade: Azula, who now petulantly and out-of-character talks back against her father, which somehow which somehow allows her to bend lightning presumably for the first time. Urgh,. I get that Korra tossed out the idea that lightning bending was an advanced that required dedicated training and extreme focus to pull of and made it so that any rando firebender could do it, but there is no reason to follow that ill-advised decision. Azula being able to bend lightning showed that not only was she a firebending prodigy, but also that she wasn't a hothead like Zuko, that she had the control and focus that he lacked. Here she acts not really any different from her brother.

And as a side note: The scene of Iroh and Zuko discussing things on Zhao's ship was shot much better in the cartoon.

And now the Water Tribe

Spoiler

We start of course with a scene of Aang explaining his feelings about Zuko and about how they parallel each other to Sokka and Katara because we can't have subtlety, no can we? And him admitting that he hasn't learn any other bending skills... lamp shading that idiotic decision doesn't make me like it.

So the Nothern Water tribe: It looks nice, better than the cartoon even but why do they fly just straight over the wall and why does everybody already know that the Avatar is coming. The original explained this and give us some nice bit of visual worldbuilding with the waterbending-powered canals.

As for the casting: Pakku just looks weird as does Yue's hair.

The budding romance between Sokka and Yue was fine. It wasn't particularly great in the original and I don't miss the asshole fiance and I actually like that he seems like a nice guy in this iteration. What I do miss is some conflict there. I suppose the arranged marriage got erased in fear of the potential backlash for having a more passive female character like original Yue, but there is nothing.

Katara not knowing healing is an unfortunate casualty of the cuts, but the scene where she learns it is really well done, but that's about the only positive I have to say about it. I cannot imagine original Katara to jump directly to fighting only seconds after having learned that waterbending healing is thing she could do. She would have absorbed that knowledge like a sponge and only then ask for fighting instructions. The absent sexism strikes here too, but in a very weird way. Original Pakku was bit more assholish and set in his ways, but the "explanation" that he gives here doesn't add up. The real issue here is that Katara in this version lacks the fire (pun intended) and determination of her cartoon counterpart, something that was wonderfully shown in he Waterbending Scroll. Consequently her rebellion against the patriarchy? doesn't have the same oomph.

OK, BUT WHERE IS THE RESOLUTION?!?! Where is Pakku agreeing to teach Katara because he is reminded of how his own sexist attitudes cost him the woman he loved? WHY CUT THIS?

I guess she doesn't need a master after all. Girl Power!!

Aang gets a subplot about his burdens again because somehow the chief and Pakku expect him to be a fully fledged Avatar at the age of 12. He visits Kuruk, who has now has the same significance as Roku, and gets the same old advice about not relying on his friends. It was unneeded and the changed mechanics of talking to Aang's past lives will almost certainly bite them in the ass later.

Honestly the only good thing I can say about episode 7 is that it's not the worst in the series. There is even one small change that I liked. My hope is now that season 2 just forgets that season 1 of this blantrocity ever happened and instead build on book 1 of the cartoon.

Edited March 8 by ASOIAFrelatedusername

[karaddin]

On Azula

Spoiler

I don't think that's meant to be the first time she lightning bends and it's not the lightning bending itself that changes Ozai's mind, it's that she grew a spine and refused to do what he told her and then demonstrated that even when pissed off and defying him she keeps a clear enough mind to lightning bend.

He doesn't want that sort of defiance from anyone else, but his kids are supposed to be as hard as him with no mercy. Zuko lacking this was what pissed him off so Azula showing she's not like Zuko makes him happy.

It's not great but it does make internal sense. The lightning bending looked pretty good.

Pakku did look weird too, I think it's the make up they used to make the actors look older because it's the same weird as Bumi.

[sifth]

never mind

Edited March 9 by sifth

[ASOIAFrelatedusername]

A bit of news:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/avatar-the-last-airbender-netflix-changes-showrunners-1235866187/

Quote

Showrunner Albert Kim, who replaced creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is also exiting the Netflix live-action series. Co-executive producer Christine Boylan and exec producer Jabbar Raisani — both of whom were hired by Kim — will take over as the drama’s third showrunners for the previously announced second and third seasons.

Sources say Kim’s intention was to lay the foundation for season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender after stepping in for the beloved franchise’s creators. Given the long turnaround time in crafting the series — Netflix ordered it in 2018, the creators left in late 2020 and the show didn’t debut until February 2024 — sources say Kim was ready to move on to new opportunities.

I doubt that this alone is going to change much.