#i took shaolin kungfu lessons cause of atla!!!

[vaguelyaperson]

decided to watch a bit of the atla remake with a curious eager open mind, and now i'm fuming over it. it's infuriatingly faithless to the original, despite the time and resources it had.

[vaguelyaperson]

in other critiques of the ATLA remake, I haven't seen anyone else address this, but

netflix butchered the martial arts of bending

disclaimer: I'm not a martial arts master, but I did have the privilege of taking a year of lessons from a kungfu master. This shifu studied at the Shaolin Temple - the birthplace of kungfu. He taught a mixture of basic kungfu (firebending), sword forms (like Piandao - Sokka's master), tai chi (waterbending), bagua (airbending), and Buddhist philosophy.

After I took those lessons, I developed a renewed appreciation for how the original ATLA represents martial arts through bending. I knew that they had a martial arts consultant to help choreograph (and damn is the choreography good), but it became increasingly clear that canon ATLA also took the philosophy of martial arts seriously. And if my shifu has anything to say about it, it's not kungfu without that philosophy.

... A philosophy that the remake butchered to present a superficial facsimile.

The original ATLA presented a wonderful, applicable nuance of bending: Like martial arts, intense emotion can make you 'stronger,' but it comes at the cost of your control. Raw strength can be a weakness; you can use an enemy's strength against them. The best fights are fought on reserved action. Proper breathing and form are crucial irreplaceable foundations. Or, MOST IMPORTANTLY, like martial arts, it's NOT ABOUT being the strongest fighter, but about self-defense and balance - balance within self, with nature, with others.

The remake said screw that nuance, bending is all about tapping into intense emotion. Raw strength is everything. Big, flashy attacks and powerful punches look the coolest. Everyone's obsessed with being a great warrior.

In other words, in the remake, that wasn't martial arts. That was just intense fighting that vaguely mimicked martial art forms. And given the budget and resources Netflix has, it's insulting that they didn't have or adhere to consultants. Most importantly, given that bending is the literal central aspect of the world, this butchering strips away yet more of ATLA's heart and soul.

I understand that they couldn't train the actors to master the respective martial arts of their element (and from what I saw of their forms, it's clear these kids at least learned and did their best to apply the basics; I did appreciate Gordon Cormier's focused finishing of airbending forms, that was on point), but the show's philosophical presentation of bending could've made up for that.

Which it didn't. At all. It did worse.

Episode one, remake Aang explained the importance of 'balance and energy' to help Katara make a waterball (something she already knew how to do before meeting him in canon, but sure yeah, misogyny is solved cause Sokka is no longer sexist), but... his explanation... sounded like the end result of a telephone game. It was utter gibberish. I could not follow what the fuck he was saying at all. 'Balance and energy' aren't magical terms - there's very real physical and mental intent, which you must train, in ensuring you have that balance and proper flow of energy (which I'll expand on below.)

Whereas in the original, Uncle Iroh's explanation of bending in the first episode was wonderful. 'Firebending comes from breath, not muscles' has real world equivalent to martial arts. Meditation is meant to train breathing, as well as calm the mind. Overt reliance on muscle (or worse, specific muscles) is a deterrent to proper martial arts. In fact, everything Uncle Iroh taught about bending was clear, well-understood, and had legitimate parallels to actual martial arts. He was an incredible foil to Zuko, an angry amateur.

Canon Zuko's firebending (at least in season 1) sucked for a reason - and the nuance displayed so much respect for the discipline of martial arts. He only seemed capable of basic forms (like forms I learned in the first month of kungfu) and maybe a few cool kicks. His breathing was TERRIBLE (you should not have to huff and grunt when doing basic kungfu forms). His balance was demonstratively bad, given how easily he kept getting knocked over. When Iroh insisted that Zuko master the basics first, it was cause Zuko legitimately still sucked at the basics. His anger and strength were poor crutches.

There's a reason that Aang had an entire character arc to master the emotions of the Avatar State, that Zuko had to learn how to firebend without anger. I can now confirm from experience that anger and reliance on raw strength makes you imbalanced and inflexible!!! It also tires you out faster.

Real balance and energy explanation: In real life, the flow of chi is facilitated by proper form, which REQUIRES meditative practice to master; correct rooted stance, arms-torso-legs aligned to maximize full-body strength, a calm focused mind. Shifu was particular about every detail of our forms down to how our feet were angled and our thumbs placed. We practiced those forms again and again and again. My most powerful hits were ALWAYS because I was focused and my form was on point.

Remember, I had only a year of lessons. Even with basic training, the actors could've EASILY demonstrated everything discussed - if the show's narrative presented it correctly.

But nope. Katara was outright encouraged to base her bending on emotions, instead of emphasizing the necessity of practice and a teacher to demonstrate proper form. The Kyoshi Warriors mostly just grunted through hard punches and threw their fans around, rather than utilizing stealth and their opponent's body mechanics against them. Azula leveled up her firebending just because she was upset at her dad (can the remake stop making men the catalyst of female characters unlocking abilities??), not because how - in canon - Azula is a precise, self-controlled person, which allows her to channel such a dangerous erratic element like lightning.

Everything in the remake was based on emotion and strength! It full on flipped the script!

It was insulting. All of it was so insulting.

I fell in love with martial arts as a child because of ATLA. I took the opportunity to learn from that Shaolin shifu because of ATLA. So I especially felt betrayed by the bastardization of the bending. How could you strip such an essential part of the worldbuilding? It's just not ATLA anymore.