#and since I haven't liked everything they've done since atla....well
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likeabxrdinflight · 10 months ago
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so I have seen the new trailer for the live action ATLA adaptation and I think I'm actually feeling more optimistic about it. Generally when an animated product is adapted to live action, I want to see something new in the production and storytelling that justifies why this story benefits from being re-created in a live action format, while still maintaining the overall heart and spirit of the animated original. Most of the disney live action remakes, for example, have failed to meet this bar.
Where I'm feeling a little more optimistic with the ATLA remake is because the format almost necessitates some pretty significant structural changes to the story. You can't take something like season one of ATLA, which was incredibly episodic and designed for Nickelodeon syndication in 30 minute blocks, and stitch it into eight hour-long episodes on a serialized, binge-watching style platform like Netflix without making changes. You just can't.
What I'm hoping they do with these changes is that instead of trying to frankenstein the story together, they pick and choose which elements matter and which do not. And then I want to see the storylines they keep get greater focus and more elevation than they received in the original. One of the benefits of a remake is that you already have the finished project to build off- you know what matters, you know what doesn't, and you can work with that to craft a tighter story while giving appropriate expansion and depth to elements of it that might have been overlooked in the original. The way Suki and the Kyoshi warriors have been billed and marketed gives me a lot of hope for this- when Bryke were first creating ATLA, they had no plans for Suki to be anything more than a one-off character, but she ended up Sokka's endgame love interest. The new show has the benefit of already knowing this.
Same thing applies to characters like Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. We already know where their storylines end up, so they have the opportunity to expand and deepen all three of them without worrying about making things up as they go or maintaining any sense of mystery. And they have a lot of opportunity to play with Ozai's character too, given they don't have to keep him in the shadows for two whole seasons anymore- we already know he's a hot older version of Zuko, that reveal happened in 2007. Since they don't need to hide his face, they can actually show a lot more of him a lot earlier in the story. Again, I'm hopeful for this given that the trailers seem to be showing a lot of extra scenes with the Fire Nation characters and Azula and Ozai are both featured on the promotional poster.
Now, will I like the changes they make? That's an unknown. I might. I might hate them. We'll see- but at least it seems like there will be changes that, hopefully, will serve to justify why this remake deserves to exist. I do not want to see a shot-for-shot recreation of the animated series. I can already watch the cartoon.
That said, I still want to see the spirit of the original preserved. So far I like what I'm seeing from Netflix- the world looks pretty good, the animals, while obviously CGI, look faithfully rendered, the costumes are miles better than what we saw in the 2010 movie (though I have my reservations about the saturation of the blue in the water tribe coats), and the characters all look pretty accurate to their animated counterparts. The lighting is dark because lighting is dark in every show these days, and I'm not 100% on the color palette. But I was glad to see some of the humor has been retained in the trailer- we see Aang running into the statue like in the opening of the cartoon, Sokka has a few one-liners, and the shot with Momo was cute. I'm a little worried Iroh's humor won't translate well into live action, but we'll see what they do with that (I imagine they'll have to cut back on some of the slapstick, Saturday-morning-cartoon antics anyways).
I like most of the casting too, from what I've seen so far. Dallas Liu looks like he's gonna be a great Zuko, Kiawentiio I already knew from Anne with an E and I think she'll be a perfect Katara, and I think Ian Ousley will grow on me as Sokka. His line reads sounded good in the trailer. I'm a little concerned about Gordon Cormier, he looks the part perfectly but he is so young and I felt like his delivery in the trailer was just...lacking a bit. But I need to see more of him to really judge. And I love the casting of Elizabeth Yu for Azula, I love that she looks like a tiny baby. No one will mistake her for the older sibling in this version. And of course the adult cast I'm not worried about at all.
(bully any of these children online btw and die by my sword)
Will this show be good? I don't know. But I hope it will at least justify its existence to me as more than just a nostalgic cash grab. That's what I'm looking for first and foremost.
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altdeldraw · 2 months ago
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we can talk about the fanfiction when i hear about them damn auths (or any other character tbh) or like any more information you have about atla au that ur thinking in ur head… im so curious…
like any other good "author" (and by author I mean person who really enjoys literature and has tons of story ideas but never actually writes them most of the time) i create AUS constantly, but this is one of the few that actually bounced around in my head for a while so i did come up with a few ideas merging the two universes and its' characters!
currently i'm working on making commie, and when i'm done with both auths i'll likely make individual posts for each extremist talking about their stories more in depth, since i only put a quick summary of them besides their first artworks. While that doesn't happen, here's some of the story plus what the other characters are up to!
first of all, i should say this story is pretty achronic as far as ATLA is concerned, the avatar was missing at some point, and he came back, but the fire nation is still kind of an evil dictatorship, so, this doesn't follow the canon events in the show, especially because i didn't watch TLOK. sorry.
when the avatar went missing, a lot of people believed that it exposed a major flaw in their system, as they are heavily dependant on the presence of the avatar as a peacemaker and diplomat, and unable to keep balance by themselves. identifying that as a problem, a group of people from all corners and backgrounds decided to come together as a group to essentially be their own avatar, and use their skills for the well being of the world. these are our "extremists", or like, proto-extremists, since we haven't gotten there yet.
so, the avatar returns, and most people forget why those extremists exist in the first place, the status quo is restored, but some people in that group still remain, firm on their beliefs that some day, they will be needed again.
one day, the avatar, which i currently settled on being jreg for lore accurate purposes, goes kind of off the rails. oh no! chaos ensues, and now it's up for the extremists, with that i-told-you-so shit eating grin to restore peace, and hopefully in the process remind people why relying solely on one person for everything isn't a very cool idea.
i think this story kind of keeps the spirit of the original, of destroying the status quo and making change through your own hands, but it's modified enough to fit the universe it's in. the coalition functions sort of like a white lotus society of sorts, and to join, you cannot have any other affiliation, especially not with any governing bodies.
speaking of the white lotus, i think it would be cool if they were the centrists? mostly because of the lack of color, but i can see if this uprooted freemason-like society felt threatened by a new and upcoming group who wants to change the system they've carefully build over the course of years and years. they probably would also not like the avatar (since, centrists), but the avatar could easily trick them into thinking that he and the extremists are allied so that both groups that hate them could pick each other off. i also thought of centrists as non benders, and since it's often shown in the show how skilled fighters can go toe-to-toe with benders, i don't think this would be unbalanced or an issue. they are, after all, a secret society with the finest of what the world has to offer.
as for the wackies, i was thinkin that they could be sub-bending/sub-element masters, since i think this nicely channels their more niche ideals and funky personalities into their powers! this concept i'm still sort of expanding (after all, i only just started putting the regular extremists on paper) but i've already had plenty of fun with some ideas:
Nazbol, a young member from the sun warriors, discovered early on his prowess with lightning. His purple clothes come from the blue of the lightning with the red of the flames. it's also a nice nod to the dragons, who are red and blue.
Transhumanism is a metalbender who channels his power mainly into a sort of mecha suit he pilots/lives in. he refuses to leave it, much to other people's shegrin.
Anmon is a bloodbender. his ability is shunned by many, he is hated as much as he is feared. he wants to use his power for the greater good, of course, but his power trips sometimes get in the way, with him believing he knows what's best for everyone.
Posadist is a combustionbender. he does not have any real backstory or motives, he just likes dolphins and explosions. (/j, i'm still working on this one.)
Anprim is a sandbender, he lives in the desert because technology can't catch him there, will hunt anyone that has anything more sophysticated than a torch or a pointy rock. (also /j but he would probably be sort of a weird hermit guy)
i dont know if this counts, but if we would put any nature-inclined ideology (like ecofash) they would definetly be plantbenders.
anyways, it's getting a tad bit late for me (almost 3am) and i'm pretty sure that's all i came up with either way. so i'll be wrapping this up now. i'll make sure to make more posts later on if i get any new ideas though! toodles :3
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