#if i wrote something incorrectly it's 2:45 in the morning which means i'm not responsible. good night

[licorishh]

Welp. Binged the second half of the new ATLA show and finished it and I am still so incredibly impressed. Spoilers under the cut y'all know the drill

I freaking loved this adaptation. Slapped. Killed it. Nailed it. I'm gonna rewatch it over and over. Legitimately the only things I could really complain about are all related to Azula.

I really feel like Azula having screentime in season 1 served zero purpose here. I feel it would've been much more impactful to have her go entirely unmentioned until the finale when Zhao reveals to Zuko that Azula was behind everything (i.e. iy would've been cooler if Zhao were also revealing it to us, the audience, for the first time).

I also think it's a little odd how they're kind of totally changing the dynamic between Ozai and Azula (or at least the parts of the dynamic that we're supposed to believe is a representation of their relationship for the majority of the show). In the original show, Azula has no idea Ozai is simply manipulating her for the fun of it. She genuinely thinks he loves her, is proud of her, and is extremely impressed with her. It's not until almost the last episode that Ozai ever directly expresses his disdain for something she's done/said, unless I'm wrong. Ozai's expectations of her in the original show appear to be things she's easily capable of meeting, and she feels extremely confident in her abilities and is under the impression Ozai is equally confident in her. I find it strange that repeatedly in this adaptation Ozai is instead treating her pretty similarly to the way he treats Zuko. He doesn't appear to show her any kind of particular favor, doesn't expect anything but the most outrageously impossible from her, and regularly ridicules/undermines her and sows seeds of doubt in her mind that she's competent.

Azula doesn't show the slightest hint of cracking until the end of season 3 after Mai's and Ty Lee's betrayal. Sure, there are hints earlier on that she's a perfectionist and refuses to settle for anything less than the most flawless outcome, but she comes off as being incredibly confident and secure in her position. She doesn't doubt anything about her situation or her relationship with her father or brother. In other words, in the original show, the audience and Azula herself are never meant to realize until the very end that Ozai was pitting his children against each other. We (and her) are intended to believe that Ozai genuinely prefers Azula and is more pleased with her than he is with Zuko. In this version, there really doesn't seem to be much of that at all. It's just odd.

Smaller complaint, but I don't think that actress is necessarily just the most stellar choice for Azula, either. The casting for the show has been excellent so far, but this particular actress seems to be bringing out aspects of Azula's character that really weren't meant to be at the forefront until much later. Maybe it's the actress, maybe it's the writing, maybe it's both, but it doesn't feel like Azula. She doesn't feel like a substantial threat. Heck, Zhao is wayyy more compelling in this version than Azula is, and that's really not very good. She feels like just another competitor for Zuko.

Kind of branching off of that, and this one is a pretty small one, but Mai and Ty Lee are super boring. Granted, I don't really care about them at all in the original anyway (Mai has really no narrative reason to exist other than to be part of what causes Azula's spiral; I do like Ty Lee a little bit, but I could really take her or leave her), but they're just... so bland. There's no reason for them to be in those scenes other than to be cardboard boxes Azula can glare at. At least in the original, they serve as an excellent example of what's tethering Azula to reality and how she feels an incessant need to exert control over every aspect of her life. I reaaaaally wish they'd waited until later to bring them into the adaptation (it's also just reinforcing to me the fact that I simply cannot see Zuko with Mai at all in either version, but that's an issue for a different day).

Other than those things I wasn't too thrilled about, I really did love the show. The acting from the main cast was excellent, the stakes felt SO MUCH HIGHER and it was SUCH a nice tonal change, the bending looked incredible, the amount of effort put into accurately replicating the sets and the costumes was just astounding, and the pacing was excellent. I love how they were able to cut down on so much of the extraneous filler from the original season 1 by finding ways to compile them together in a way that still flowed excellently and allowed for a greater focus to be put on the main story. The main story in this adaptation never stops going, and for me, that makes it SO much easier and more fun to watch. It doesn't go off on forty-minute tangents that have zilch to do with the main point of the show.

Also Dallas Liu is literally the best possible pick for Zuko. He is capturing Zuko's miserable wet cat energy in a way no one but Dante Basco could do and that is saying something. He's also putting an excellent emphasis on how desperately obsessive Zuko is about catching Aang in season 1. He's completely blinded by his desire to find him, causing him to make completely illogical and irrational decisions driven purely by a desperate desire to measure up, and Dallas Liu is really doing an incredibly good job reinforcing that without having to actually say it.

Gordon Cormier is also absolutely killing it as Aang for me. I'm really not the biggest fan of Aang (I just don't usually like child characters; he's better in some parts of season 3 but he's just not really my favorite), but he's actually making Aang incredibly fun to watch. He's adorable and fun and silly without being painfully immature and difficult to be invested in. Yeah, I know, Aang's twelve and twelve year olds are immature, but that doesn't mean they're automatically fun to watch. He's really doing a great job there.

I also love this version of Zhao. I feel like he got way more screentime in this version than in the original, which was pretty cool. He turned out to be a much cooler and more dangerous villain than it felt like he was in the original.

I also liked this version of Yue WAYYYY more even though she was only in one episode because man!! She has a personality holy cow!! She's actually fun!! And entertaining!! Not just Phantom Menace Natalie Portman-levels of "Well she's a very nice person :)"

Also also, I loved the vibe of uhh episode 5, I think it was-?. Both of the Koh jumpscares legitimately startled me which I was not expecting 😭 normally I can eat simple jumpscares for lunch but they made him so frickin creepy which is honestly good because hE IS FRICKIN CREEPY

And I cried. Like three times. First time when frickin Leaves From the Vine played at Lu Ten's funeral (that one had me weeping as usual), I think a second time when Katara is remembering being a little girl and is hiding and she sees her mom being killed (that was honestly so much more impactful that we actually got to SEE such things instead of just hearing about it), and then I think again in Zuko's Agni Kai because my gosh he's been through it :((( the flashback parts before then though were so nice 😭 I lived long enough to see happy smiling Zuko in 4k which means I can die peacefully now

All of this is coming from someone who first watched the show as a young kid, was never really a huge Aang fan, and really doesn't care for the original season 1 and tends to skip it every time I watch the show. I have pretty unusual opinions about the original, so my opinions here may vary massively from the general consensus, and that's fine. I really loved this adaptation and I will be so heartbroken if they don't make a season 2 MAAAANNNN I NEED MORE 😭😭😭

Also the writers are goated for replacing Aang with Sokka in the Cave of Two Lovers and having Katara reinforce their family bond instead of pushing a self-insert crush a little boy has on a teenage girl who treats him like her son. And also that scarf scene which I think I will perhaps never not be thinking about. I will be forever indebted to them for that but again that's a topic for uhh not right now ���