#live action atla

[kat-rose-griffith]

I liked it better when Katara released Aang from his 100 year slumber through the pure unfiltered rage of a feminist rant at her brother

[azural83]

No way they got rid of katara's anger in THE feminine rage era

[sabreurs]

sokka trying to get katara to give up on her waterbending bc it could get her killed. and katara refuses to give up and continues to practice anyway. bc sokka and katara represent the survival of both the people and the culture. sokka had the safety of their people thrust upon him by his dad, while katara is the only one in their tribe that can carry the weight of their culture. both are heavy burdens, and they're struggling with their roles bc they're just two kids trying to rebuild in the wake of genocide. but they refuse to give up, bc that's what the story is about.

holding onto hope, regardless of what you face.

[malallory]

i feel like a lot of y'all forgot about the fact that atla creators left this project over creative differences. like I'm seeing a lot of surprise and outrage over these revelations about the characters' motivations and story arcs and I'm like??? i mean yeah??? we knew this was gonna happen?? we didn't know the specifics but Mike and Bryan TOLD us that they were leaving the project because the people in charge of it were changing it in ways that made it no longer true to itself. like did you forget?? did you think it was over hairstyles or something? yeah be outraged and irritated but surprised? hardly.

[thanakite]

Just read that the live action Avatar the Last Airbender is making Sokka less misogynistic which I think is actually a poor choice

Part of what made Sokka a good and interesting character was seeing him grow from a boy who often insulted women into a man who regularly drank his respect women juice

We need to allow people to be shitty and yet grow into better people and Sokka was a good example of that because he was generally still likeable as a character overall, even when he was being kind of a dick

Giving him the chance to learn and grow as a person was part of what made him a well rounded character and to remove that is likely to make him a flatter character overall

[wilcze-kudly]

So um. I genuinely don't have many thoughts on the live action atla. It looks fine.. i guess

Except. Zuko's scar.

It's so... underwhelming. Like yeah it's there. It's red and it has a little bit of texture. But I guess i was hoping the live action would make it a little more prominent.

Like I'm a burn victim myself, who very much went through a similar struggle Zuko did. Where i felt like my scars define me. This. This feels not like what i hoped for. They even let him keep his eyebrow 😤

And I'm hoping that it's just because it wasn't practical to go all out with it. Like it was too expensive to put full prosthetics and special effects on such a young actor for every shoot.

But i have this sinking feeling in my gut that its because he's 'meant to be attractive'. Or even more heartbreakingly, that making it bigger would be considered too 'gory' or 'body horror'.

And im just tired of seeing scars and other 'deformities' as being seen as something to only be shown in full capacity in horror movies. That it would be too visceral or too 'gross' to fully show. It reinforces the idea that people like Zuko, people like me have something inherently disgusting and ugly about us. That our features have to be toned down in order to be palatable to a wider audience.

I remember seeing Zuko for the first time as a kid and seeing a part of myself that was rarely represented. I was bullied for my skin grafts as a child. Of course i was, kids are cruel. But seeing Zuko go through the struggles i went through and to have him find people who didn't treat him differently was so important to me. Like to me, that part of his story was arguably more important than his redemption arc.

And seeing Zuko seen as attractive by people in the fandom was also a profound experience. Because it felt like i could too exist in my full burnt chicken nugget glory and still be treated as a full person. Not looked at with pity or disgust.

So that's why live action Zuko's scar is such a disappointment to me.

I have other thoughts on the atla remake but really, they don't matter that much, since i don't think ill be watching it

[petimetrek]

I did a marathon yesterday and watched all 8 ep of Avatar.

I think it was fun, the original is obviously 8926583756 times better but it wasn't as bad as some people say it was.

It's just as I expected: some weird CGI, a little bit of cringyness, weird cuts and mixes of the plot, and the characters sometimes are a bit off... but in general, I enjoyed it.

If they do a second season I'll totally watch it.

/also Iroh and Zuko made me cry like 3 times.

[thegroundhogdidit]

live action atla did the absolute best characterization of zuko (keeping a diary) and also the worst (not once mentioning honor)

[empyrangel]

How are people really acting like the general consensus is that the Netflix atla series is decent or even good??

Zuko’s backstory and desire for familial love is brought in way too early so he doesn’t have time to actually be a ruthless and cruel villain. Y’know, the thing that’s essential to his killer redemption arc? Because god forbid characters be unlikable.

One of Sokka’s main flaws was completely removed because god forbid characters be unlikable. And he’s not funny!

Katara is watered down to being just a little girl, her mature and nurturing side is gone. Her anger at injustice is also gone because god forbid characters have flaws.

Aang doesn’t act like a kid. He doesn’t try to run from his responsibilities while simultaneously feeling guilty about running from his responsibilities. Because god forbid characters have flaws.

You know, I’m seeing pattern.

“Yeah all the characters are completely different from how they are in the original, and the acting is flat, and the writing is shit, and the world feels dead, and the pacing is terrible because they insist on smashing like 4 important episodes together at the same time, and some of the best moments were completely cut out, and those that were adapted got butchered, and Aang doesn’t really even learn waterbending during the water season, but it’s still pretty good. I mean the cgi looks nice and it’s not the Shyamalan movie.”

Oh wow they say his name right five out of five stars 🙄. Cmon are our standards really this low?

[mydairpercabeth]

shot for shot… this is wild

[winter-tospring]

The Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko was one of the smartest, best additions to the show. I see people complaining about Zuko "fighting back", as though that's a bad thing or takes away the victimhood of his situation.

Zuko is prepared to fight someone else. Then his dad steps in. There's already a ton of pressure, and now confusion overwhelms, because wth why would he fight his dad and HOW. He doesn't want to fight him. But this Agni Kai's point is for honor, to prove himself to him, and a) he is firstly DEFENDING himself from his dad who is the one who starts fighting him hard. (throwing fire at him?? Hello??? Is he just supposed to take it??) b) don't you think Ozai would think worse of him if he didn't do anything at all? And don't you think Zuko takes that in consideration pretty quickly as his dad attacks him?

It's clear Ozai will fight. Now Zuko looks confused and scared during the fight, rightfully so, and he tries to figure out how far this will go. My wife keeps saying that he is sparring (and that y'all don't know about sparring, lol), and that doesn't mean you have to hurt your opponent, not the way Ozai intends. Zuko engages defensively, and then fights his father, hoping that's enough to show him that's he's good at this, that he's skilled. It doesn't have to go as far as Ozai takes it, it COULD just be sparring. Zuko COULD jusy try to show him what he's learned and hope his dad is pleased enough. Isn't that what he keeps trying to do anyway? Get his approval? Both he and Azula. Unfortunately, we know that's impossible.

The unfolding of this Agni Kai drives home the cruelty of Ozai in an even more intense way to me. Because no matter how well Zuko fights, it's not about skills, it's about how far he's willing to go, that's what Ozai is judging. The mentality behind it. Zuko isn't willing to hurt his father when he could, he holds back! That is his "weakness". And the way Ozai punishes this by doing what Zuko refused to do - burning Zuko where Zuko could've burned Ozai - that is a horrible reminder of this "failure" to go far enough, and the consequences it entails.

Zuko's scar now isn't just random placement, it has meaning behind it beyond the basic cruelty of Ozai hurting his child. It directly references Zuko's "weakness". Ozai showing him how it's done directly on his face, serving as a constant reminder that he couldn't be the strong one, so he got hurt by the one who was willing to be.

The sequence of Zuko holding back and Ozai NOT holding back but purposefully pausing and choosing to punish him this way was mind-blowing. Such a powerful, terrifying moment that makes Ozai feel even crueler than in the OG.

I don't think Zuko not engaging in the OG is bad at all, it virtually gets the same result; but I also don't think it's bad for him to decide to engage. It doesn't take away anything from the point, for me, the way it plays out in the live action takes it further. It examplifies Zuko and Ozai's relationship and Zuko's efforts - never enough - perfectly.

[kat-rose-griffith]

[azural83]

I need everyone who defends natla's writing to raise their standards because the current entertainment industry takes advantage of your "anti criticism" mindset and gives us mediocre shit like this😭

[sabreurs]

zuko and sokka disappointing their fathers is something that can be so personal

[prideprejudce]

one thing I will say is that I like the costumes and how they are sourced faithfully off the cartoons costumes

i mean let’s just remember where we started

to how its going now

[boiledsoybeans]

watching the live action atla rn and zuko furiously scribbling a drawing of aang and pinning it up onto the wall had such Regina George screaming and scribbling in the burn book energy