#natla positivity

[fairmerthefarmer]

When I first saw this photo it made me cry a little.

EDIT: I coloured it

[hailsatanacab]

fuck it I'm interested

[ultfreakme]

Kiawentiio painted Aang riding on a skateboard and gifted it to Gordon ;_; What if I cry? That is adorable!!!!!! That's so sweet <3<3 it's such a nice painting!!

[lesbyers]

what’s so crazy abt natla is that the cast is so phenomenal. the show itself absolutely butchers the story in all aspects other than appearance. the heart of the entire show and the entire emotional arc of avatar, the family that the gaang becomes, is no where to be seen within the actual text of the show yet every interaction between the actors behind the scenes and on social media has that heart. it’s so sad to see actors that look exactly like their characters and who understand and care for their characters so deeply be given material that feels hollow and void of all of this. natla has an insane level of untapped potential buried beneath netflix’s terrible handling of the story and that’s what i find the most frustrating and upsetting.

[spirantization]

I need to talk about NATLA Katara because this girl has been on my mind so much recently. In another post regarding Sokka's character arc, I mentioned briefly how the changes to his characterization impact Katara's character in turn. Her adaptation has been one of the most heavily criticized aspects of NATLA; even people who liked the show often bring this up as one of the weakest parts of the series.

I've been sick and rewatching the OG animation and NATLA to see the adaptation choices more clearly (and also think about what s2&3 might look like). I've said previously that changing Sokka's arc meant that Katara's arc had to change, and that wasn't satisfactorily done. Upon rewatch, I have to disagree with my previous statements and the popular opinion about Katara's characterization.

Katara's journey in season 1 is about her growing into her role as a warrior, when she has spent her life being thrust into a passive role -- not able save her mother, having to listen to Sokka (as both her big brother and protector of the village), and not able to fight against the Fire Nation. The first time we see her, she's unable to bend; we see her consistently develop her bending abilities and her strength throughout the season. She confronts her past inability to save her mother. She stands up to Sokka to do what's right. She fights against the Fire Nation and protects the Northern Water Tribe.

Sokka's arc, as I've said previously, is about him struggling with his identity. He was thrust into a leadership and warrior role at a young age, and he's tied up so much of himself into what this means. His arc is about accepting that he doesn't have to be a warrior and doesn't have to be a leader.

It's a yin & yang characterization. Katara's place as a warrior, leader, and protector grows as Sokka's ebbs. Their arcs make the most sense when considered together. They're meant to be in harmony with one another. I see the intention of the storytelling present in their respective characterizations, and how they develop in connection to each other.

Unfortunately, so many people appear to have watched the first episode and either reacted negatively to the changes or stopped watching altogether. I've seen adjectives like "passive" and "bland" thrown around in reference to Katara. And on reflection/rewatch, I think that was the point: to start her off as someone who is afraid & weak in her power, and to grow her over the season into someone who is brave & adept in her bending. By the end of the season, we see a very different Katara from the one in the first episode.

It's alright if these changes didn't resonate with you and you preferred OG Katara's characterization and arc in Book 1 of the animation. They made a choice in the adaptation that was clearly a stumble for the majority of fans. Perhaps, now that they've done the work to get her there in NATLA from a different beginning, her season 2 characterization will more closely match her OG counterpart.

[highfantasy-soul]

Something I think ppl who complain about animated shows getting turned into live action forget is that representation matters.

Specifically talking about Avatar The Last Airbender, the creators of the animated show are white guys. The majority of the voice actors are white. The majority of the writers are white.

Yet the story is about Asian and indigenous people. They DREW Asian and indigenous people, so why are you so upset about Asian and indigenous people being excited to inhabit roles created by and voiced by (mainly) white people when it's THEIR culture actually being represented?

Why are you upset that in this live action, they made a point of uplifting as many Asian and indigenous voices, faces, and artistry as they could?

Making an adaptation of something isn't saying the previous medium isn't 'good enough'. It's not insulting the previous medium, it's just a normal human thing to want to retell stories and add to them/delve into aspects of the story that speaks to the adapter. Modern retellings aren't saying classics are 'less than', swapping the genre of a song isn't saying the original genre is 'less than', and making a stage play from a book isn't saying that books are 'less than'.

This post has nothing to do with what you think the QUALITY of the live action was like - this post is about people who view POC adapting a story about THEM as the POC being bad and insulting your precious show created by white guys.

One glance at the cast and producers of the Netflix Avatar will show you that they have nothing but the upmost reverence and love for the animated show - their intent is clearly to honor it and enhance the story, not to claim 'animation bad'.

[randomgirlyoudontknow]

No one will probably read this, but as a long-time fan of ATLA (as in, I literally watched the show as it aired in 2005-2008), I wanted to share my thoughts on the live action. Let it be known that I am far from an ATLA purist––the original certainly had its own flaws and aspects that didn't age well, in retrospect. Despite the generally negative reviews I've seen from the fandom, I was actually very satisfied with this adaptation! But I’ve seen people saying that the characters were butchered, that it’s a soulless and superficial reproduction, and those who liked the live action aren’t capable of thinking/watching critically, which I wanted to push back against (I mean, I’m working on a doctorate in literature…I am quite literally incapable of watching anything uncritically).

The shift in tone to a darker, more mature one was a positive change, imo. It is definitely a much angrier show than the original, even if some of the characters were not as fiery as they should have been (*cough* Katara *cough*). Overall, while there were certainly decisions made that I didn't agree with (mainly related to pacing and narrative), I thought the cast and crew really captured the spirit of the original, and even added depth and nuance to parts I felt were initially lacking.

In general, I really appreciated the added emphasis on the cost and suffering of war and imperialism, as well as the depiction of the physical effects of bending. Now, I realize this is largely a matter of personal preference––for example, I'm very interested in depictions of war in fiction (I mean, my dissertation partially covers the impact of WWI on avant-garde art & literature, so...). But I've seen several claims that the live action glorifies war and violence in a way that is meant to traumatize the viewer, and I simply don't think that's true? While the original handled war, genocide, trauma, etc. in a phenomenal way for a kid's show in the early 2000s, it was also still sanitized when it comes to death and injury, to an extent that I feel like we, the viewers, almost lose sight of the fact that bending KILLS. Sure, we were exposed to its after effects, like the death of Katara and Sokka's mother or Zuko's scar, but there's something to be said actually seeing and acknowledging the very palpable danger that something like firebending presents.

I've even seen someone say that the show's depiction of "gratuitous violence" constitutes a "profound misunderstanding" of the source text, which I think is frankly a bad faith take. The death and violence, though more realistic, is still not a major focus of the show, nor is it glorified in any way. A glorification of violence would look like indiscriminate killing and maiming for the sake of edginess (looking at you GOT). We would see graphic depictions of death and injuries, which simply does not happen in this show (they even joke about the fact that we never see anyone die in Ember Island Players). War and fighting are still treated with the same depth and gravity as the original, only this time, the severity of its consequences isn't obscured from the viewer.

I also thought the show's handling of trauma (especially Katara's) was excellent. The choice to have Katara's mom's death revealed in flashbacks (specifically when around firebending) was something that really stood out to me. And the new characterization of Bumi, which I realize was quite unpopular, was another change I quite appreciated. His bitterness and cynicism seemed more in-line with someone who had endured 100 years of war and the suffering of his people at the hands of a brutal imperial force. Lastly, I was pleased to see the narrative attempt to address the role Iroh played in the Siege of Ba Sing Se (something that was absolutely missing from the original). The Earth Kingdom soldier confronting him and calling him a butcher was a powerful moment, for me. I truly hope the show continues to dive into this aspect of his character in future seasons.

Speaking of characters, I loved that we got extra background and insight into several of the characters. Zhao, for example, was unexpectedly quite funny, and his actor really did a phenomenal job of fleshing him out and making him feel like a real person (as slimy and smarmy as he was) rather than a stock, cartoon villain. And I have to give kudos to the actors who played Sokka and Zuko––they both did an incredible job of embodying their respective characters, in a way that felt highly reminiscent of the original. In particular, I thought the handling of Zuko's backstory was truly outstanding––perhaps even better than the original.

All in all, I felt the live action did a really nice job of balancing the darker sides with the light. While I've seen fans complaining that the show doesn't have the same goofiness and lightheartedness, I actually thought the humor worked really well––it was one of the few times I felt the overly ironic, Joss Whedonesque one-liners actually fit. Sure, the humor was a lot drier and more toned down than the original, but I nonetheless thought it carried the show's spirit well (loved that they let Sokka say “ass” not once, but twice). There were moments when I genuinely laughed out loud! I also appreciated how, despite the more mature tone, hope, friendship, and harmony still remained the most important aspect at the end of each episode.

There's a lot of room for improvement, but I was overall very satisfied with the live action, and I'm very glad that the series has been renewed. I'm very excited to see what the cast and crew does with the rest of the show!

[gothriotgrrl]

One of the things that is really infuriating me about so many of the "takes" on Katara in NATLA is how most of them are opposing each other. The same people who are complaining about her not being motherly enough are the same ones who are complaining that she's too "subservient". First of all, I don't actually see her do what anyone tells her to do for no other reason than they told her to do it, because that's what subservient means. Everything she does, she does for a reason and the show SHOWS us that.

Also, the original show did not present her motherliness in a positive light, it was a coping mechanism for trauma that the other characters acknowledge was a coping mechanism for her trauma, but still took advantage of because it was essentially her taking on all of the responsibilities without being asked so they didn't have to. And then she would, rightfully, get annoyed when everyone treated her like a doormat and yell at everyone. But when she tried to break out of that motherly role, she was punished by the narrative. In the third season, she literally gets arrested the one time she tries to allow herself to be as irresponsible as everyone else is being. And while people I've noticed are annoyed that they removed her yelling and her anger, when she yelled in the original show, the narrative tended to frame her as being "hysterical". They literally animated her in a way that makes her look unhinged. In the new show, her anger is still there it's just significantly more subtle so she's not framed as "hysterical".

The truth is that, while Katara is a character that has a lot of potential, and has very specific character traits, the original show did not always know what to do with those traits. Nor did it know how to have her exist in an episode without those traits being punished in some way by the narrative, or being presented in misogynistic ways like having her just generally be punished because she is the love interest of the Avatar. (Like the episode where she is literally buried alive in front of Aang, and after she is "unearthed", no one, including her, cares about what she went through, she only cares about Aang.)

The new show is trying to take the foundation of Katara's character, remove the inherent misogyny (and fetishizing racism) that was ingrained in her character presentation, and give us something more solid. Is it perfect? No. But it's a hell of a lot better than the original.

[godmademeinmspaint]

Going to say this now even though I barely post here::::: Adaptations are never meant to be a 1:1 recreation of the original source material. The goal is never to recreate the exact same experience in a different format, the whole point of remaking something in a different format is to make something new.

I don’t understand why people are out here acting like the new Netflix ATLA walked onscreen, shot the original with a 44 and declared itself the new ATLA. I’m not saying you can’t criticise anything about it or any other adaptation, I just think a lot of people need to remember that an adaptation that gives you the same experience and explores the exact same themes and doesn’t elaborate on or look at things in different angles would be utterly pointless.

[artistsmellslikeunemployment]

Things that natla did do:

- Katara stealing a water pouch from a merchant shop at night

- zuko draws!

- include pieces from the books and comics (mother of faces, Kyoshi‘s personality,

- „water the most promising seed“

- Katara standing by and smirking as Sokka flounders trying to impress Suki but her not buying any of it

- Katara never letting anyone talk over her once diplomacy fails

- Bumi‘s armpit hair

- Zuko talking about Lu Ten

- Azula learning to use a blue flame and failing

- what can I say, the actors make the show very enjoyable 🤷🏼‍♀️

- Kuruk refusing to take possession over Aang‘s body/ Avatar state

- overall I think they drew info from the books about the other eras

- the sound of Iroh‘s firebending reminding of a dragon‘s growl

- Avatar Roku making fun of Avatar Kyoshi

- Zuko basically enthusing about Kyoshi‘s strength only to then get his ass kicked by her

- Suki (and mom) gushing over seeing their role model Kyoshi in action

- random woman with broom and Zuko letting her hit him

- Aang running away at the end, after the battle. He might not have run from his responsibility but he ran from the consequences

- „have you seen my flying bison?“ which is way better because even less believable

- Katara being bold enough to train her waterbending in the abandoned fire navy ship around Wolf Cove

- emphasis on Sokka‘s inventory skills and by elongation his bad ice dodging skills

- Zuko deciding to stay with/ look for Iroh instead of chasing Aang twice

- Lu Ten‘s theme playing every time Zuko and Iroh confess their love for each other

- Omashu‘s part of the earth kingdom being India coded

- Zuko so specifically being triggered by the word „compassion“ but not „empathy/ emphatic“ because he actually does believe in kindness and much like Azula is still trapped in the pressure of having to represent all his father believes

- Zuko looking disgusted all the time

- 41st division bowing to their prince

- I had fun watching it and most of it makes sense tbh.

What I don’t get (logic mistakes):

- Mai being too openly anti fire nation by saying she wouldn’t ever come back if given the chance

- Iroh finding the Blue Spirit‘s mask in Zuko‘s pile of clothes but maybe that’s not even a negative.

- no talk about the meaning of the necklace

- Gyatso Living in the Spirit World (doesn’t Aang have enough guides with all his previous lives?);

- that assassination attempt on Ozai and Azula infiltrating the plan? Was this meant to show Ozai‘s cruelty and Azula‘s strategic thinking??

- what was Bumi‘s point exactly?

- Yue being a spirit fox. Why? It added nothing.

- „i bet you taste like chicken“ no opossum chicken. just chicken.

- Kyoshi being the narrator

- Aang being able to communicate with his past lives only by visiting their shrines and not in the right order (usually the avatar has to contact every avatar before him in the order of their lifetimes before he can get through to the next)

- Aang being shamed and gaslight by everyone

- confusion over what happened to the villagers as well as Katara and Solla by mixing Hei Bai‘s and Ko‘s stories as well as the Fog of Lost Souls and creating a new loophole into the spirit world when people stand too close to Aang while he meditates? Also, Ko‘s „Magic“ with individuality and his reason for stealing faces when showing emotion is lost.

- with all due love, what was Suki‘s mother for?

- Wan Shi Tong randomly sitting at some wayside

- Why wouldn’t normal people understand Wan Shi Tong? How are they planning for Team Avatar to find out about the solar eclipse if not through Wan Shi Tong‘s library later?

- Iroh suspecting Ozai behind the apparent assassination of Zuko so openly in front of Zhao

- Iroh justifying his war crimes with „I was a soldier“??

- Iroh „sacrificing“ himself in Omashu when the earth kingdom forces were looking for the firebender even though they both would’ve gone undetected otherwise

- Iroh killing Zhao

- does Momo carry the spirits‘ life now?

- the fire nation inventing a solar system model to predict Zosin‘s Comet and potentially the eclipse as well

[requiemforthestars]

I'm a NATLA defender now, tbh. I think more people will grow to appreciate its good parts more as time goes on. I'm of course waiting to see how they wrap everything up and I'm not immune to its flaws, but I think people are so blinded by everything not being The Exact Same as the original cartoon than they're not appreciating its good parts. It's an adaptation, a companion, it's not a replacement to the original.

[appa-yeet-yeet]

Putting Sokka in the Kyoshi Warriors’ uniform was meant for a “2000s laughing at a guy in a dress” bit

Suki originally makes him wear it so she can show him what it means to be a KW

And then Aang literally walks by and says “Hey Sokka, nice dress!” /j

Yes they could have still added it in the live action and framed it differently (because in many Asian cultures, all genders wear “dresses”)

But also it’s a uniform based on what Avatar Kyoshi, a woman, wore and the Kyoshi Warriors, who are made up of only women, most likely have to earn the right to wear it

Sokka and the GAang also had to retreat moments after this scene and Sokka accidentally taking a very culturally important uniform because Suki wanted to teach him to respect her and her culture would be decidedly not cute

[ultfreakme]

natla naysayers have used the term "feminine rage" so much that I just really wanna know what people think 'feminine rage' means? Because Katara is angry here.

In NATLA she yells at Sokka for acting like he's her dad, telling him off when he dismisses her for following Jet and him ignoring her warnings about the mechanist, then again when she freezes Jet and walks away, and then when she talked to Pakku, then when she talked to Aang and he told her she shouldn't fight, then later with Zuko in the spirit oasis. She was angry. Not as much as the original, but she isn't the flat board people think she is here?

She was not confident at the start because the draw a direction connection between her bending and her personality. As she grows more confident and learns more moves, she comes out of her shell.

Sokka stifles her, but this time because he thinks waterbending will somehow get the Fire Nation to their shores and the search for a waterbender is what killed Kya. Katara has trauma surrounding waterbending put on her by colonial forces. It's in-text, Katara needs to embrace her culture, and the good parts of her mother's life and celebrate the memory of Kya. Waterbending is like a million different things to her now; her culture, honoring her mom, being herself, fighting against the FN by simply bending, it doesn't even have to attack a person. Her bending at all is shown as something important.

And at the end she DOES. And she's confident and centered and smug about her powers. It's not the same arc and it could have been better written, but they're building up to why Katara acts the way she does the same way they did with Azula. One's a modification, the other's an addition.

It kinda sucks when people dismiss Katara's new arc because it's genuinely good. Bending is culture, the Fire Nation made her and the southern water tribe so afraid of what they are that they have to hide it and hate it but she grows throughout the show to go "fuck you" to the Fire Nation and everyone else and bends. That's a personal journey right there. In the OG Sokka didn't want her bending because he just thinks all benders are a problem. It's such an important commentary on colonialism! They take away your culture, bastardize it, to strip you away of your identity. They teach you different languages and say your gods and beliefs are evil and bring trouble. Sokka think waterbending, just Katara daring to even try it would mean the Fire Nation will come. They made the SWT afraid of their own culture and made it so that Sokka now thinks "surviving is enough" and Katara- her hope, and her embracing bending- is what shows that people should strive for more.

Like istg if you stop looking at what's gone and see what's there on the show, you'll find the new stuff.

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

idk man maybe i'm missing something but telling people that they aren't real fans of a source material because they don't full-on despise the live action adaptation just sounds a little close-minded and idiotic to me

[blorboazula]

surprise, surprise: I fucking loved NATLA

after watching NATLA: yes, I absolutely love what they changed with Azula's character..

being so openly manipulated by Ozai, you can't even pretend that he's not manipulating her, and being clearly upset by it? makes her undying loyalty to him hurt even more.

(I think that half a second of a facial expression isn't out of character, her back's turned to him.)

you can't say she isn't manipulative or smart, you can't say she's not doing evil shit or being scary. motherfucker working with Zhao, motherfucker looks absolutely unfeeling watching Ozai and the guards burning a bunch of rebels.

(I think the hint of teared-eye watching Zuko's Agni Kai makes more sense than OG show stupid smirk, that's an eleven year-old child.)

you can't say she isn't already quite deranged in the original, just more subtle about it (like Ozai's abuse of her is shown more subtly. and people still argue that it didn't happen.)

my favorite little things

the whole thing with the bow;

flashes of blue fire (perhaps now y'all won't forget her fire is originally orange);

(I still don't know why it's not blue in the intro);

the one tiny scene of her training late at night with Mai and Ty Lee sleeping close to her – that gonna make the betrayal hurt so much more.

[highfantasy-soul]

Princess Yue - Netflix Edition

Yue's character concept is so cool, but in the animated series, like Suki, she was a cool concept that really just became a plot device rather than a full character.

The live-action fleshes her out as a young woman put in a position of authority over a tribe not just as a princess, but as someone with a part of the moon spirit within her, so she chooses to use that to be a spiritual leader of her people as well. She shares how she serves them, not just as a bride to be married off like in the animated series, but as someone who helps make desserts and councils them on spiritual matters. Yue has stuff going on outside getting married to Hahn and it makes her feel like a real person rather than a plot device. She has likes and hobbies and struggles like a whole character - ya know, stuff she can also talk to Sokka about to create a connection rather than just…thinking he's cute, I guess?

I love the additions the live-action gave her due to her having a part of the moon spirit within her! Being able to pop over into the Spirit Realm in her dreams was a wonderful touch and having her meet Sokka there added to their connection - she saw him as he was, not as someone trying to impress a princess. It also makes total sense that she's a waterbender - she has a piece of the moon spirit in her, the first waterbender - why would she not also have that ability? It was a great way also, to show subtly in the finale that her giving her life back to the moon would bring back waterbending as she bends even when the moon is 'gone'.

Her and Sokka's relationship, though still rushed, feels a lot more organic and understandable in the live-action. They bond over being in positions of authority and sometimes wishing they could just be 'regular people' so they both understand at least partially what the other is going through. It's beautiful that Yue falls for Sokka not because of his battle prowess or status as the warrior of his village, but because of his heart - his first words when she meets him are of concern for his friends.

In the battle, Yue takes an active role with Sokka - not to fight, but to help get people to safety - showing that there are many ways to help during a crisis other than being a master in combat. She shows Sokka the hidden oasis not to stand by while Aang meditates, but to heal someone who'd been hurt - even if that someone was 'just a pet'.

Finally, I love giving her the agency to realize that she is the one who can bring back the moon spirit. In the animated series, Iroh is the one who prompts her, but in the live-action, she comes to that conclusion herself. It's just her and Sokka in the end and she makes her sacrifice. 

I couldn't tell you what animated Yue enjoys doing, what she values in a person, or what she did in service to her people. But I could tell you all those things and more about the live-action Yue. Even though she's only in 2 episodes, she's a full person and you know exactly how her loss will affect her people: the Grans will miss the princess coming in to the kitchens and helping with dessert, the people will miss getting advice from her, but hopefully, a silver fox will still be able to roam the Spirit Realm.