#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.

[fresh-new-yoik-watah]

I’m honestly so sick and tired of the avatar fandom on tiktok. let people have their fun or learn to read a damn caption ???? like I’ll post an edit using a face claim over Tsireya and a million comments will be “WHAT DID YOU DO TO TSIREYA” or “Awoop jumpscare” you are not creative or funny go touch some grass. It quite literally doesn’t affect you. Just scroll past if you don’t like it Jesus Christ

[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???

[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

[1c3-c0ld-r3x1c]

How to get sick enough??

I'm failing ana. My best friend ana. I need to be more ana I am not sick enough but how do I GET sick enough

[mugentakeda]

[quillthrillswriting]

i'm sorry, but the atla fandom is the only place where i've ever seen people unironically use a 12 year old telling his friend that killing someone out of grief is maybe a rash decision and not healthy to argue that that same 12 year old is being controlling and is an unhealthy partner

you guys know that murder is like....a bad thing....right? especially for a 14 year old? you guys know that revenge murder isn't a healthy strategy? you guys know that anyone who would encourage that is probably actually the unhealthy one in that scenario...right??

[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.

[therossgarden]

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.

[thatbookgirl1118]

I cannot for the life of me find the original post (tumblr is a hellsite) but this was sent in an atla gc:

@the-badger-mole

and tbh i always kinda felt like kataang was weird exactly because of that one-sidedness??? like there's one episode of katara maybe sort-of seeing aang as a love interest (when the fortune teller tells her she'll marry a powerful bender), but then the rest of the show is her being passive in the relationship or actively pushing aang away (like their second kiss). and then at the end she just randomly decided "okay i like you i guess."

whereas aang got a bunch of pining moments and you actually believed he was in love with katara.

and most of their relationship was about how she helped aang - he did contribute to her character development over the course of the series especially as a bender of course but it didn't feel as emotionally/spiritually deep as katara's literal one episode sidequest with zuko.

but then someone else wrote "I would argue the opposite? Kataang is where Katara choose the peaceful nomad which subverts the trope presented where zutara is where she chooses the strong protector/combatant. Aang as a character is a subversion of the typical hero while zutara is like,,, coloniser romance idk"

and honestly... i kinda get that. aang was problematic in a lot of ways, but he was definitely a subversive protagonist, and i can see the power of allowing the woman to choose the pacifist vegetarian over the extremely obviously hot jock badboy. this is an incredible oversimplification of their characters of course, but the point stands.

Basically, Kataang is the ship we all logically want - the sweet, friendship-based, seemingly subversive one. But Zutara is the one that actually makes sense in the story, with these characters, not their tropes. Aang is subversive, but he and Katara are also kind of terrible for each other - he isn't mature or selfless enough for Katara, who needs someone to force her to take care of herself because she's always the one taking care of everyone else (wonder what that's like). That's why she and Zuko are so perfect, because he not only takes care of her, he makes HER prioritize herself. Aang... does not. He's pretty selfish, which yes is partially due to his immaturity (I personally don't count Korra as canon because it treated ALL the og characters terribly so I'm speaking purely from his 12 yo self), but it's also just a basic incompatibility thing. And Katara is actually equally bad for Aang - she enables him waaay too much, and he needs someone who doesn't. Who forces him to stand up on his own two feet and take responsibility. She's too much of a mother, and her relationship with Aang is too mother/older sister-ish.

With Zuko, on the other hand? Katara started out HATING him, forcing him to prove himself to her instead of handing him everything she had like she tended to do with Aang and Sokka. He had to earn her care, and as a result he appreciates it way more and demands way less of it. He's a far less selfish character generally for the same reasons, and is much more mature/has a better understanding of life and gray areas. Southern Raiders is a great example of this - he's down for whatever Katara decides because he understands that there's no one right answer, unlike Aang who simply preaches forgiveness. I'm not necessarily attacking Aang about that either - I do believe that grudges eat away at a person, and taking a life does haunt you, so forgiveness isn't necessarily bad advice. But it's not what Katara needed. Aang is great as a friend, but I don't think he's what Katara needs from a romantic partner. Zuko just... is.

[aangarchy]

Posts like this are so annoying, skinny people really believe fat people aren't capable of anything

This right here is sifu Manuel Rodriguez, who was contacted by the atla team to develop Toph's unique style of earthbending. This is not a skinny man, and yet in the documentary they showed him sparring and he quite literally dominated everyone (not because of his weight, purely with skill!)

I don't find it hard to believe a fat person could be a jedi. Especially not after seeing this man at work. Why on earth do they think a fat person was placed there for "woke points"? Why can't you believe this particular fat person was just good in his audition?

There have been people with fat, broad bodies that are incredibly athletically skilled. Star wars had Luke Skywalker drink blue milk straight from an alien's teet, a monster that is basically a hole in the sand, a tiny green goblin who happened to be one of the most powerful beings alive, THEY CAN LITERALLY MAKE THINGS FLOAT WITH THEIR MIND, and yet a fat jedi is where they draw the line at believability? Come on.

[dustyoo10]

THAT WAS LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIRST SEASONNNNNNNN!!!!!!

HE WAS A YOUNG TEENAGE BOY IN A MALE ORIENTED CULTURE, SOKKA LOSES A HUGE PART OF HIS DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT THAT FLAW!!!

I IMPLORE writers to understand that you CAN show uncomfortable character flaws, it makes their development and overcoming of those flaws more impactful!

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

honestly, i think the double standards with catra and glimmer stems from something other than pretty privilege, and it's something i've seen in a lot of media.

take, for instance, the atla fandom demonizing aang and katara but coddling azula. or the su fandom villanizing steven but making excuses for spinel and lapis.

and the reason for this is that villains or antagonists are always given more freedom to make mistakes, to do heinous shit, to be cold or rude or insensitive to others. the logic being that "they're the villain, of course they're gonna be horrible".

with heroes, on the other hand, there's this subconscious judgment whenever they make a mistake. heroes are meant to be perfect and as much as people say that they want more antiheroes, they always judge a hero based on how morally good they are.

which explains why katara is hated on for saying something insensitive out of repressed grief and trauma, but azula is coddled for committing multiple war crimes.

why glimmer is bashed for being kinda mean and making some bad choices due to grief and pressure, but catra's conscious choice to attempt genocide and willing participation in war is justified.

why steven is villanized for having a mental breakdown after years of suppressed trauma, but spinel's attempts to kill dozens of people on earth are excused.

why mabel is demonized for being kinda selfish sometimes and for being manipulated into giving away something she didn't know the importance of, but bill is loved by everyone.

why korra is blamed for trusting her uncle and losing her connection to the previous avatars, instead of unalaq being held accountable for manipulating her (unalaq isn't really coddled by the fandom but there's a huge victim blaming problem).

simply put, people want heroes to be pure. they want surface-level flaws like clumsiness and awkwardness, not REAL flaws. as much as these people say that they want more morally grey or complex heroes, the truth is that they can't even handle their hero being kinda rude to someone.

especially with characters like glimmer, mabel and katara, who have a more traditionally feminine aesthetic and is generally a good person, people expect them to be well-behaved and perfect all the time. even though both these characters were shown to be passionate and stubborn and fierce from the very beginning, people are still blindsided when they actually take a bold stance or act on their emotions.

and with steven, he was a nice, happy, easygoing kid in the beginning and he tried to remain optimistic throughout all the trauma he went through, so people just expect him to do that forever. to always repress his feelings and never give himself the space to express them, to always focus on being a therapist for literally every other character and to never prioritize himself.

and like sure, villains are meant to be evil. i'm not telling anyone to water down their villains. but there's a difference between liking a villain and excusing their actions. i like azula. i like all of the villains in tlok. i like bill cipher. i even like catra and white diamond minus their shitty redemption arcs.

but i'm not going to set double standards by justifying everything that a villain does and demonizing a hero for acting out of line once. especially if the hero actually takes responsibility for their actions and tries to be better, and the villains just get forgiven for doing the bare minimum.

[beifong-brainrot]

Avatar Fandom!

Tell me your thoughts surrounding Katara and her parentification, how the fandom treats her as a character much older than she actually is.