#i won't bother making comparisons to the original atla

[mizjoely]

Started watching the Netflix ATLA series. So far I'm liking it - seeing Fire Lord Sozin reveal his plans to that poor Earth Bender, and watching Aang interact with the Air Benders and especially his mentor - good stuff!

[angstsplatter]

Yet Another NATLA Opinion

It's enjoyable if you take it as its own thing and not a live action version of the cartoon. Everybody who does a remake is going to interpret the characters their own way and want to make their mark on the series. You're going to get that here. The problem here is that I don't think ATLA is a good medium for this. TMNT has like 90 different remakes, even if you count comics, shows, and movies all as their own separate groups. This works for TMNT because it's character driven. There are some similar-ish plot threads that usually get picked up but mostly, it's about the characters growing up and kicking butt. This works with Star Trek because it's world driven. Each iteration introduces you to new characters and just expands on the universe. ATLA is story driven. It is telling a very specific story. That's why LoK was a good next step because it let the story continue. The live action took a very specific story and tried to make it their own, and that...just falls flat.

I think you're most likely to enjoy NATLA if you've never watched the cartoon, tbh. You won't be bothered with the weight of comparison.

They squished a lot of storylines together that I don't really understand why? Runtime of the cartoon s1 should be about 10 hours and NATLA about 8 hours, so they honestly should have been able to tell a pretty 1:1 story, but they mushed everything together and kinda confused it all.

The stuff they sacrificed was...just weird. Like Katara and Sokka are stuck in the spirit world for almost an entire two episodes or something ridiculous. That was a 20 minute storyline at most originally. They clearly just wanted Katara and Sokka out of the way...

Which tracks with how they've treated the characters. Let's start with the fact that the tone of the show is completely different (which I get: it's hard to bring the extreme cartoonish quality that cartoons need to actually convey expression to real life), so they kept very little of the original characterization. Zuko is the only main character who is even recognizable. Aang - not a fun-loving, scared little kid anymore. While he had some of the best comedic relief lines (played off seriously and kinda awkwardly in live action) with the other half going to Iroh, he's a serious kid who's fully embraced his destiny. This Aang isn't running from anything, much less the truth. He's bullrushing right into it. (That said, I think Aang's casting was GREAT, and I really enjoyed how his actor handled what he was given.) Katara - NO bite whatsoever. She's not angry. She's not hurt. She's not grieving. She's not sarcastic trending on mean when frustrated. A lot of people have been comparing her characterization to the Ember Island bastardization and...honestly, I see that. In the cartoon, I don't think she was planning on challenging Pakku. It just happened heat of the moment. NATLA Katara very deliberately and strategically planned challenging him. It really took away from the stakes of the moment. Sokka - no character arc/growth, no sarcasm (he's the meat and sarcasm guy, ffs!), no strategic genius. He's given credit for the North's attack on the fire ships but we don't actually see what his plan was??? There's no planning and no played out action sequence to actually make him look good. This is telling but not showing. Zhao - not a main character, but I just really hate how they turned him into this cruel, calculating, ambitious asshole into a simple pawn of Azula's. You get Ken Leung for the role and play him dirty like that!? Bumi - not a main character but his characterization was so unrecognizable that I have to mention it. Angry and hates his old friend. A complete 180 from the cartoon. And I miss the antlers. The big hat was just weird. Yue's betrothed - not a main character but again, his characterization was so bastardized that I have to mention it. He and Sokka's interactions reminded us that this is just a group of kids/teenagers stumbling around trying to save the world. They provided important relief from the battle by having a hissy fit over Yue. Here, he specifically sought out Sokka to ask his advice and they act as cohesive unit. Just...jarring.

And secondly, they got rid of ALL the character bonding and relationship development. The characters barely interact at all. Zuko and Aang interacted like once and then suddenly Aang is discovering all of Zuko's secrets and his history. There's no developing friendships between Aang and Katara or Sokka. Sokka and Momo get the most development with Sokka going to wanting to eat him to wanting to save his life. It's just that they barely get a lot of screen time and there are no side shenanigans. It's only serious plot and the characters being separated every other minute (Bumi takes Aang and Katara and Sokka weirdly do the Secret Tunnels together???, Katara and Sokka are shoved off into unconscious land in the spirit realm why Aang gets a whole lot of avatar backstory, etc.).

THERE IS NO APPA. Appa is a tool, not a character. The original gang does a ton of bonding while flying on Appa to all their destinations. This Appa shows up when they need a five second ride and disappears immediately after. No one bonds with Appa, Appa bonds with no one, and no one is given a chance to bond with anyone else.

For some good, I actually don't agree with what I've seen about Suki and turning her into some doe-eyed, Sokka-obsessed fangirl. I actually found her characterization quite good, and I think having her mom there to interact with was really interesting. Also, the facepaint looks 10x cooler in live action than it did animated.

I couldn't pinpoint what I didn't like about the reveal of Zuko's story until someone on reddit summed it up for me. In the cartoon, Zuko's backstory is about explaining why he's such a driven, possessed, arrogant, angry and confused teen. It doesn't excuse his behavior, just adds depth to his characterization. In NATLA, it's used as a way to shame people for being frustrated at him taking his anger out on them and to garner him sympathy and heavy-handedly sets up his redemption arc. I have a feeling if we get more NATLA, Zuko is going to become a part of the GAang much sooner.

I'm torn on Ozai's handling. I think the cartoon worked really well to never really show him except vaguely wreathed in flame to add to that typical cartoon villain-ness. I think giving him more screen time, especially casting Daniel Dae Kim, for live action is probably a really good idea. But with the Zuko stuff, it felt like it was trying to humanize him too much when his actions were abhorrent and nothing but cruel. I don't need that humanized. They pulled it back in the second half playing it all as manipulation for Azula's grooming, but I'm not sure how much of that was really intended and how much of it was *wavy hands ignore the logic gaps* TV logic.

I do like how they played more on the angle that Azula is just as abused as Zuko is, just in a very different way.

Yeah, like a lot of other people, I don't like the change to Zuko's agni kai. They really destroyed the intensity of the moment and fundamentally changed Zuko's character. That's all I have to say.

Why create a show about bending and not really explore it? D| I know they deliberately don't have Aang waterbend, but why??? Why cut out that Katara did learn from Pakku and that was why she was able to advance so quickly? She'd made slow progress in their travels but having someone to actually guide her was fundamental to her abilities!

THEY CUT OUT THE PIRATES. And got rid of the best part of Zuko's attempted murder scene. A total loss. C'mon, those pirates would have been so fun to see on screen.

The bending scenes you see are pretty cool and fun to watch. I also like seeing the hybrid creatures of avatar.

The casting of Jet and his whole crew was spot on.

I do love the costuming. The costume department is really hitting it.

Yeah, I'll watch future seasons. But everything is so rushed that the emotionality is just not the same. There were a lot of moments in ATLA where I laughed or cried or sat in stunned silence. I don't see that happening with NATLA unless they stop to actually breathe and let the plotlines play through instead of rushing through them too quickly.