#avatar rant

[silversoul713]

F*ck it.

Someone has to say it.

The Avatar remake is good. Honestly.

For each thing that it did wrong, it did two things right and one thing better. The casting was solid, characters felt overall believable, it explored more of the world and was dark and funny, just like they promised.

No, it isn't perfect, and as much as we all like to say that the original was flawless, it really wasn't. The truth is that the animated series was as close to perfection as it could be given the medium, budget, time etc. It was above what anyone at the time expected. It blew minds! And it is unfair to expect the same level of greatness from the live action adaptation.

You cannot compare something so beloved and incredible to something that is completely fine on its own and say it is terrible just because the new doesn't live up to the original.

It isn't one to one and if it had been then it would've sucked because we all would've seen it before but better! Obviously they had to change things because of it. But they wouldn't want to take away from the journey or spend precious minutes on certain areas, so they mixed and matched, put other things in between the lines and it works!

They made it different, they gave it more. It isn't the same Avatar we grew up with and that is fine. It's a remake, an adaptation, you knew what was coming.

If you go to see a new Robin Hood movie, or Cinderella or any other famous story retold, you wouldn't want it to be perfect and precise to the version you like the most, because you've seen it a hundred times already! You see it most likely because you like the overall story, and want something new to absorb into your obsession!

Yeah, it messed up, yeah it was wonky here and there, but the things it did right and the things it did even better more than makes up for that and people need to stop expecting things to be perfect because it's not gonna happen!

It is still Avatar.

If you want the original then watch the original. If you don't want remakes to happen then grow up and accept that you don't have a say in it.

To claim that they shouldn't attempt remakes because they can't be better is a slippery slope of thinking that could wind up extremely toxic. It insinuates that if they don't know it can be just as good or better than before then they shouldn't even try. It inspires toxic perfectionism. It inspires giving up before trying.

So either close your eyes and don't focus on the things you don't enjoy like an adult, or open them properly so you can enjoy good content without being judgemental.

[salty-medley]

Well, that's interesting

I don't know if you noticed something, it's about background characters so I'm pretty sure lot of you don't even care, but even if I'm not fond of the fact they chose to make the Rough Rhinos totally bad at fighting just to make the main cast appearing better and make fun of the bad Fire Nation, I think that in Vachir's case it can mean something else.

In the comics, we learn that he was chosen by his superiors for Ozai's mission, aka finding his wife and her lover, and get rid of the lover. Now hear me: HOW THE ACTUAL FUCK this guy, member of the most elite group, the group which managed to capture the avatar while everyone was failing, and chosen among all his fellow archers, can possibly be that bad while facing Zuko, Iroh and the Gaang?

Well, we saw in the comics that he was really proud and confident, his wiki page even mentionned him as a star student (in Mrs Kwan school) , one of the best. Just imagine the schock after returning from this mission, where he couldn't even find the target due to a well known spirit who changed their faces so couldn't kill the guy, hearing the Firelord telling him to leave the Yuyan.

Ozai litteraly send him on an impossible mission ( that time I have to admit he didn't know himself about the spirit), and punished him in the worst manner: deprieving him from his whole life and somehow his identity. Doesn't that sound familiar? He'll do the same with his own son few years later, in an even more cruel manner.

But the point is, it's not even his archery talents which weren't good here, nor his tracking abilities: it was the work of a damn spirit. So why is he "that" bad except for the comical effect and the usual foil to make the heroes look good? I'd day his confidence was the key. We mostly see him hiding behind his teammates and having troubles to admit he's not good at hand-to-hand fights, but did he even needed it when he was a Yuyan? No. He wasn't trained for that at all. Nor he was trained to fight with a group of mercenaries not sharing his specialty.

And the same goes for every member ( at least the 5 original ones). That's what makes me think that just like all the Rough Rhinos he has a good potential alone but not together. Sokka couldn't fight Mongke in a 1 vs 1 in the comics. It'd be the same if each one was in his own environment. Iroh described it very well by saying "Each one is a different kind of weapons specialist. They are also a very capable singing group.", emphasizing on the fact they are different BUT also mentionning the only time they are good together: while singing.

Also we were robbed of a RR concert with possible Iroh as a guest.

[peabodysautobodyrepair]

“Nico Di Angelo is a token gay! His coming out scene sucked!” babes I’m BEGGING you to remember 2013 gay characters were not allowed in children’s media.

Lemme say that again: In 2013, it was expected that gay characters would be censored in children’s mass media.

Remember Korra? How she and Asami had to settle for ambiguous handholding rather than a kiss? That was fully a year after House of Hades came out. Nickelodeon said No Gays, the Children™ can’t handle that. Too risky. And people said man that stinks, but that’s how these things go in 2014 America.

Gay marriage was literally still illegal in the vast majority of US states. As of October 8th, 2013 (House of Hades release date) Gay Marriage was only a thing in thirteen fucking states. California had only legalized it that year.

Gay people were still very much on the fringes of society. It was an acceptable political position on both sides of the aisle to be against the existence and equal rights of gay people.

Nico was legitimately a landmark character in queer representation. To my knowledge, there wasn’t before an openly gay main character in a bestselling ya/middle grade fantasy fiction series. It simply was not a thing. They didn’t exist. They weren’t allowed to exist.

I remember people crying. Finally. It was a watershed moment. Kids all across the world finally got someone who represented them. It was such a big fucking deal. And it was controversial!!! Not for the reasons it is today, but because people thought gay kids having representation was inappropriate.

Is Nico’s coming out a great scene? No, these days it leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and I’m sure Rick wishes he could change it. But the fact that’s the case is a wonderful reflection of how far we’ve come.

All of your gay heroes in children’s media have Nico Di Angelo to thank. It was important, and good. It deserves to be celebrated, even if we’ve progressed past it since.

[mood-2017]

why do I see people complaining left and right aboout them cutting sokkas sexism arc but not about them completely cutting sokka out of the jet arc??? which in my humble opinion was much more important to sokkas character development overall and as a leader. sokka being the only one not blindly believing jet and his heroic act and instead trusting his instinct and revealing jets twisted morals and cruel plan that could have led to the death of a whole village full of innocent people??? no one???

[zukomysweetbabyboy]

just saw a post that was like “atla wrote one of the most complex sibling dynamics ever (katara and sokka) and for some reason people point to zuko and azula like they’re not just having normal sibling interactions” and look. i am ranting and raving about my water tribe babies on the DAILY, i Love them & i love analyzing them, their dynamic is like a chew toy to me, they’re beautiful and tragic and sweet and deserve all the attention in the world. BUT to call the fire nation royal children NORMAL sibling interactions— what da hell was your childhood like? n o r m a l??? nOrMaL???

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[theladystrikesagain]

how does a show released in 2024 fail harder in showcasing fully rounded female characters with flaws and strengths and rich personalities than a cartoon from the 2000s. why has television & film legitimately regressed across the years when it comes to showing women as human beings lmao

[prince-geo]

literally pleased with almost all of the new atla trailer except as per usual, Zuko's scar, idk why studios are so scared to commit to the intensity of the thing, its supposed to be shocking and obvious and textured and the first thing you see... that's the point, Zuko is supposed to struggle with feeling like it defines and brands him before finally coming to the point in his journey where he defines it.

Hollywood/big studios are known to hesitate or straight up avoid properly and honestly and unapologetically showing people with disfigurements/disabilities/facial differences etc. with the realism they deserve. Which is a shame in general for representation and humanization but ESPECIALLY in this case as its minimization actively harms it's narrative purpose as well

I promise making the scar more intense (shrivel up the ear a bit, make it intrude in his hairline, make his eye in a permanent squint due to nerve damage, for god sake REMOVE THE EYEBROW IT WAS BURNED OFF) will not make Zuko "ugly", (the actor is incapable of looking ugly and also the implication that scars make people too unappealing? yikes) but will actually do the character and his journey justice, not to mention really show Ozai's brutality, another essential narrative tool. Especially when he's bald like hello??? It should be even more stark and intense when he doesn't have hair to distract from it and cover his ear!!!

When transitioning from 2D to live action, of course some visuals are up for interpretation but that usually involved ADDING detail because the constraints of having to stay on modeling frame to frame is gone, not minimizing, removing or airbrushing. Doing Zuko's scar right to me is absolutely essential and I'm disappointed they seem just as as scared to go there as I thought they might. It doesn't have to be gory, if you've ever seen burn victims in real life or in pictures or even cosplayers/artists who are skilled in realistic burn makeup you'd know its possible to balance realism with humanity. It's possible especially with their resources to avoid the "scary Halloween makeup" route while not holding back on the brutality of the original injury.

Budget is definitely not an issue, or "scaring the kids" considering this remake is likely aiming to go a lil darker in tone than the cartoon (which was already super dark with its target audience of nickelodeon 7 year olds so no excuses) Audiences SHOULD be unsettled and upset when they see him but not because he's hard/disturbing to look at but because we are human and do not want to imagine someone doing that to a child.

It's a deliberate choice out of the all too common fear/hesitation to allow someone who is destined to eventually become a protagonist and is meant to be sympathized with to be "too ugly" while this hesitation is very rarely applied to straight up villains (again we come back to media's historic villainization of facial deformity). It's a trend that's always ticked me off in fanart too. The boy's face was melted, for gods sake. Zuko was always portrayed as an attractive boy in the cartoon (fire nation girls fawn over him) even with the intensity of his scar which is something I've always admired! People exist with scars similar to Zuko's in real life, and should not only be permitted to be represented as good guys and/or as attractive when their scars are toned down to be "palatable"

Like I said there's more that I loved than didn't love about the trailer, that can be a whole essay on it's own but I needed to get this very specific vent off my chest because it missed the mark so hard and stands out like a sore thumb in comparison to all the other visuals that hit the nail on the head to me

[madame-helen]

[bridoesotherjunk]

Even just making Toph a little older in the live action Avatar show is going to completely ruin her character.

Her introduction in the show HINGES on the fact that she is not only a blind girl fighting and winning against these huge men, but the fact that she is a TINY blind girl fighting and winning against these huge men.

Throughout the entire series people underestimate Toph because she's three things

1- blind (duh)

2- she's like 12 fucking years old and is like 3 feet tall

3- she's a girl who earthbends. Earthbending is seen as super masculine and macho in the show. Toph is one of the very few female earthbenders we ever see in original ATLA.

Removing her being twelve fucking years old is going to completely change her character. Her reveal in the Blind Bandit is nowhere near as funny or impactful if she isn't literally half the size of the adults around her.

Not to mention Toph being another goofy 12 year old gave Aang a new friend to bond with and be silly with. The live action already removed A LOT of the goofy joy from the series. This will only make it worse, because you KNOW they will not let an older, more feminine, Toph be as wacky as she was in the original series.

I have refused to watch any of the live action Avatar bullshit, but the stuff they say they want to do with Toph has completely sealed the deal for me. I will never watch them butcher my favorite character in the show.

[thegremlininyourcloset]

shoutout to fictional women and girls. Nobody gets them like I do. “She’s a bitch—“ She’s a teenager. “She’s evil—“ she got angry once. “She has no personality—“

you aren’t looking hard enough.

there are LOADS of interesting fictional women & girls that just get ignored by fandoms. Sure, some of them appear in lots of stories—but they’re never the focus. They’re just a plot device, a source of advice, a conflict.

And yes, sometimes, when you write fanfiction of female characters who aren’t given much depth by their authors, you have to dig deep.

maybe she wasn’t given all that many traits—but take what she has, and run with it. Take an aspect of her background, dig into how it might have affected her. And you can absolutely give her traits that weren’t quite there in the original text.

People do that with less popular male characters all the time. In fact, they do it with popular male characters even more!!!

(I’m looking at you mha fic authors who wrote a billion and one stories centered around your bland fucking protagonist being a completely different character

no hate tho I just don’t like deku—)

let her be feminine without being weak.

…but don’t project femininity where it isn’t there.

And, most importantly:

don’t be afraid to make her flawed. Make her angry, make her dramatic. Make her vicious and violent.

don’t make her perfect. don’t make her a prop.

make her interesting.

@fictfrenzy @themoonwitch-mustspeak @lordbasilsnek @lena-thinks-too-much @thebestusernamepossible @illustrativewriter

[yourfaveisanavatar]

the jurgen leitner copypasta is a spiral leitner

the jurgen leitner copypasta is a spiral leitner!

[artyapplebee]

Okay we need to talk about Rumi and Azula. Here's a thread because I'm having thoughts™

The similarities between the two are insane to me. Here's a girl raised as a weapon by a parental figure that "loves" her entirely conditionally. She thinks she's a monster. She thinks she doesn't deserve/need love and a family. She's an overachiever obsessed with perfection. She's so, so scared of failing and making mistakes because she thinks being perfect is the only thing making her worth something.

She wears a mask, is told by her parental figure to never show weakness, never be vulnerable, of there will be consequences. That all she has to do is obey, do as she's told, be perfect. She wants so desperately to make them proud, to be like they want her to be. But she's never enough. She cannot be enough, in fact, because what they expect from her is impossible.

She's told not to trust anyone, not even the people closest to her. She's the leader of a group of three girls, three weapons, always fighting always surviving. And so much depends on them, on her, because if they fail, it's on her. If she doesn't annihilate her enemies, - the ones she's told are enemies - then she will lose everything.

And ultimately, inescapably, her girls turn on her. They finally see her for what she is : a monster. A demon. She's not even surprised, honestly. No one could ever love her, after all. So says her parental figure. She's a mistake. She's a failure. She just has to fix it, though, right? Everything will be fine if she can just fix it. Be perfect like she's always been, do what's she's been taught, and everything will be fine.

Except she's too far gone to go back to the way it was.

She snaps. She breaks down.

Now for the difference.

In darkness, Rumi finds light. Azula only ever finds fire.

[anxious7sami]

I’m so tired of the rhetoric that Neytiri wouldn’t have been a good tsahik/doesn’t fit the role, I truly feel that if you think that then you need to rewatch both movies asap. Neytiri has to be the most misunderstood/mischaracterized character in avatar, cause there’s no way someone sat and watch that whole montage of Neytiri teaching Jake the na’vi way and thought oh yeah she’d be a terrible tsahik.😒 Like we literally saw her teach Jake the spiritual part of being a na’vi and connecting to eywa, trying to teach him to SEE, explains the flow of energy and how everything is connected. We literally would not have the Jake we have now if she didn’t teach him like a tsahik would, heck he wouldn’t even be alive if Neytiri didn’t do as a tsahik would and listen to eywa and her signs. I honestly believe it goes back to people not being able to empathize with Neytiri, they see a rightfully “angry native woman” and automatically assume she wouldn’t be a good tsahik.

[aurore-boreal1s]

I am so so so so so TIRED to see people fatshaming two perfectly healthy girls because they have round faces. It’s disgusting.

The actresses of Mai and Azula are on point for their roles. Hell, if they were chosen there must be a reason, it’s not like there’s no Asian actresses out there they could choose from.

People can’t accept that Azula can have a characterization beyond “crazy and sadist sicko”. She’s a perfectionist. She’s an asset to her father. She’s jealous of Zuko’s birthright and of how it might take what she has away. Those are things that OG Azula too had. The only difference is that we actually see it in season one and have a background on her, rather than writing it in a rant. And what has been added only makes her a more complex character, given the change in the family dynamic as well.

And Mai? The actress is talented, she delivers a good Mai, and does justice to the character. She’s 17 and at the beginning of her career, of course it won’t be perfect. She gets to grow. Thing is, you guys won’t let her, because a square jaw scares you so flipping bad that you feel the need to shame her for it.

Everyone is a body positivity advocate until a girl with a rounder face shape is cast as a character in a live action you are NOT forced to watch? Seriously?

I’ve seen so many people on the internet calling them all sort of names, fatshaming them, insulting their work without even focusing on the acting. And I’m like, what’s to fatshame there? Let me tell you: nothing.

If I have to put it through your thick head like this, so be it. Even though I hate talking about and comparing bodies.

This below is a picture of Azula’s actress.

She has the face card, she has the jawline, and she has a fit, enviable body. And you still have the audacity to “fat-shame” her?

These two pictures are in costume. Again, face card and an enviable body. She even has the expression for Azula. You see a girl with a rounder shape of face and will automatically go “no she’s too cute to be Azula!!” Dude. No. When she will actually deliver as the crazy girl we know, she will devour. She will, and you all will switch back because that’s what you are, slimy switchers.

And now, onto Mai’s actress, a very beautiful girl with talent and looks. She is literally so pretty, and you dare hate on her? You dare shame her for how she looks? From what I’ve heard she’s a minor, too, so this makes you 100000% more slimy and undeserving of any sympathy in my book.

This is her, this is the girl.

She’s literally so pretty. Maybe she hasn’t got the same facial structure of Mai, but she delivered all her lines she had in the little screen time and with the discutibile scenes she was given. She was good. But you see a square jaw, a rounder shape of face, and are immediately triggered.

And you can’t even use the stupid argument of “she’s fat”, because this is literally her.

A very normal, very healthy young woman. Not as skinny as OG Mai? So what? She’s still a fricking thin girl. Nowhere as “fat” as you haters make her to be.

I shouldn’t have to explain common sense and basic decency to grown adults, and yet here we are.

This is honestly so frustrating. In the year of 2024 you can’t possibly justify insulting girls like this, with no shame. It’s absolutely idiotic and shows very a big lack of brain cells. I see you, haters, behind your device, with your insecurities and shame for yourself, laughing at two girls who made it farther than you ever will. You can critique the acting once you’ve seen it in full potential. Until then, shut your tramp up. This is very small dick energy of you.

I don’t see why I should treat you with kindness when you are so eager to make this kind of jokes about pretty and in shape girls you are very obviously jealous of. Go touch some grass, incels.

[nattikay]

I know I've ranted a bit about the infamous Sideways "Avatar's soundtrack is ironic" video before, and you may wonder why I get so worked up about it.

Well, this. This is why. Take a look at this small collection of comments, not from Sideways's video, but from this video and this one.

Let me go ahead and emphasize that all the music in the two videos these comments were made under....is part of the actual Avatar soundtrack. If you've actually seen the movie you can even pinpoint most of the scenes.

"I can't believe they rejected this" They didn't. This is the actual soundtrack.

"It's a shame they didn't use these works if they paid for them" THEY DID USE THEM. THESE WORKS ARE LITERALLY IN THE MOVIE.

"I just found out this is one of the only songs that isn't trying to be WESTERN!!1!" that's real rich considering that particular track is the one Sideways lambasted for being "Na'vi Amazing Grace" 🙄

"The reason this wasn't released is because Cameron asked for something and then decided he didn't like it!!" First of all again THIS MUSIC IS PART OF THE ACTUAL SCORE, second OH YOU MEAN THE COMPLETELY NORMAL PROCESS OF CONCEPT WORK THAT EVERY MOVIE EVER GOES THROUGH?? Yes! Asking your designers to explore xyz concept and then ultimately deciding to go a different direction is NORMAL!! Literally EVERY MOVIE EVER has TONS AND TONS of stuff that gets explored in concept but never makes it to the screen! That's the flippin' POINT of the concept stage holy crap!! There is absolutely nothing "ironic" about it, it's NORMAL

There's nothing wrong with being curious about the older concept iterations for the soundtrack, but can we please for the love of all things decent stop pretending that the Avatar soundtrack is some sort of tragic moral affront to the world of cinematic music? Goodness gracious people. The Avatar soundtrack is gorgeous and I'm willing to bet that a solid 95% of the people who lament about it would have no issue with it they hadn't been told to have an issue with it by a video that skews the concept process in the worst possible light.