#Avatar the Last Airbender Spoilers

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Three things that make any ATLA rendition tap into the good ol' original sauce: One, there will be the most unnecessary Zutara crumbs somewhere. Two, Zuko will be the teenest teen who ever teened. And three, Iroh will say and do the most random shit.

[kiwisandpearls]

I’m not gonna get beat for saying that i personally think some apologists for certain characters border on excusing said characters’ actions on their trauma and villainizing other characters to make said characters seem innocent whilst also infantilizing said characters am i

[sweeney1999]

Listen, overall I'm not vibing with everything the Netflix adaptation of Avatar has got goin on... But that scene of Zuko crying in his bed while being told of his banishment was, in my opinion, a very moving addition and it would've killed in the original show. (It was so good it almost made up for them having Zuko actually fight Ozai and then cutting "You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher".)

[tigerbears]

Guys I have a theory...

THINK ABOUT IT!

They both love tea...

Have done things they now deeply regret...

A dead son...

Consumed poisonous flowers that one time...

Have proteges who've suffered injuries in their left eyes...

and can Firebend/use Fire Magic...!

[hirosboard]

Already seeing so much criticism over the show but I’m personally enjoying it ESPECIALLY because of her ☝️

[katy-l-wood]

Okay, finished the whole season. Thoughts on the new ATLA under the cut. (They're positive, so if that's not your jam that's fine. But I'd like to keep this post positive. Discussion is welcome, bashing is not.)

I fucking loved it. This is easily the best adaption of something I have ever seen. They got the tone so well, and the way they mixed in 1 to 1 stuff from the original show with their new stuff worked so, so well. That addition of the division Zuko saved being assigned as his crew? Chef's kiss. Chef's fucking kiss.

I think the biggest marker of success for me, though, is that I didn't have to do anything else while I was watching and I didn't WANT to. My attention was fully, 100% on the show 95% of the time, which is so, so fucking rare for me as someone with ADHD. I don't even remember the last time I watched a show and didn't have to also be drawing or doing a puzzle or playing a game on my phone to stay engaged. But with this I didn't.

Also, the COLORS. It was such a fucking pretty show. And IT WASN'T FUCKING BLACK. There was LIGHT. I watched 80% of it during the day in my relatively bright livingroom and I could always see everything clearly, even during the night scenes. And the siege of the North with the limited hues and blasts of fire? Perfect.

And Azula! The way they added her to this season was so damn good. Sets up her character so fucking well. Just. Ugh. Yes.

They also aged it up just right. It really feels like a WAR is going on in a way it didn't in the original (which is not a critique of the original at all, just what worked for telling the story that way). But it also doesn't revel in that darkness constantly, which is refreshing.

As for the changes they made to Sokka, I think the warrior narrative works really well, and they rounded it out nicely. I can't wait to see his eventually reunion with his dad now. Would it have been more true to his character to include the sexism as well? Yeah. But I think, with the way they streamlined the narrative overall, having him go on a journey of learning better about his sexism AND struggling with being a warrior would've made things feel bloated. Focusing on just the warrior narrative, to me, just works better with everything else they did in the live action.

Can't wait to see what they do in season 2! (And we better get a season 2. And 3.)

Also.

Queer ladies Oma and Shu FTW.

[keeperofthebees]

They fucking kneecapped Katara's character instantly they took away her anger and her emotion and any choice she ever fucking made by giving it to Sokka???? she's not even bickering with Sokka anymore where am I this is not my Avatar

[cam-ulu29]

okay but why do Zuko and Aang have more chemistry right now than either Kataang or Zutara. wtf. I don’t even ship this and it’s all I see.

[wileycap]

I haven't got the spoons for writing anything long, so I'm just throwing my ideas out here in little snippets. This little snippet turned out a bit long, but...

This is super dark. I've tagged all of the dark stuff, and if I've missed a tw, please tell me. I don't think I did. There are no graphic descriptions.

ATLA AU: Aang defeats Ozai. Aang loses everyone.

Aang has just defeated Ozai. He looks out to the horizon, and sees a number of airships crashing down. He mourns the possible loss of life (even though he can see many crews huddling on the tops of the airships, surely there were some who didn't make it) but ultimately, he's at peace with it.

He sees one particular airship go down rough. Well, he thinks. Time to go rescue people.

He secures Ozai to the rock and even though the man is a monster, he promises to come back and that the former Fire Lord will be treated humanely.

There are bodies in the wreck, and he offers some words to Agni on their behalf, because that's who he is, and he remembers that Fire folk need to be guided on their way to the Sun. He remembers the words from a hundred years ago like yesterday, because for him, it was. Well, yesterday and a year.

But when he finds three bodies, huddled close together with a burst steam pipe near them and the room slowly filling with water, Aang finds that he doesn't have any words at all.

He takes them from the wreck and lays them out on the beach. Sokka must have been holding Suki and Toph close, and from the shape of the bent metal sheets in the room, he could guess that Toph might have tried to cushion their fall with Metalbending. But he'll never know for sure.

If they'd only had a Waterbender. The boiling steam could have turned to a cool mist.

Waterbending takes his thoughts to Katara. She or Zuko weren't anywhere to be found. Were they gone, too? If they weren't, how was he going to tell Katara that her brother was dead? And Toph. And Suki.

He sits by the bodies on the beach for a long time. Eventually, some of the surviving soldiers approach him.

He gives them a short speech. He brings Ozai out to them. Ozai is still feeble, and babbling commands to kill the Avatar, but as Aang had hoped, he can't inspire fear or respect without his bending. His soldiers refuse to attack Aang.

A few of the airships can still fly. He orders a crew to fly him to the Fire Nation. He has some kind of inkling that that's where Zuko and Katara might be - he tried meditating to see if he could connect with Katara the same way he did when she was captured in Ba Sing Se, but the grief is still too near. And in any case, ending the war is most important, and to do that, he has to go to the Fire Nation.

Ozai stays on the bridge with him. He thinks its good for the crew to see him, to lose their fear of the man. A voice inside him whispers that it's good for them to see that Aang could do it to them, too.

He quashes it. It's the grief and anger talking. He tries to meditate, to center himself, to let himself feel all of his grief so that he can begin the long journey to overcome it. But the meditation doesn't help, and he can't even cry.

They reach the Caldera.

He finds the Fire Lord sitting on her throne, alternating between laughter and tears and screaming and whispering. Crying for her mother, screaming for Zuko, laughing to her father that she did it, didn't I do good?

The duel is short. The Avatar State allows him to overpower Azula with ease. Her energy is bitter and twisted and wrong, but he untangles the knots and removes her bending. Curiously, Azula doesn't even fight it very much.

The screams and laughter and sounds don't stop. But some sages and ministers and a few guards come in, and he centers himself, meaning to explain to them that the war is over, when one of the sages asks him if he knows any Waterbender healing.

He's happy for a chance to help someone. He tells them that he isn't as good as Katara, but he knows the basics.

Prince Zuko has been asking for Katara, they say. (None of them knew the name of the Waterbender who came with Zuko to challenge his sister.)

Aang's hands are very cold. He tells them to take him to Zuko, immediately, and to bring pure water.

Zuko is lying on a bed. His chest is as crimson as the covers. His breathing is shallow. He keeps rasping out Katara's name until he sees Aang. Then he tries to say something else.

Aang tells him not to speak, and gets to work on his chest, but he doesn't have Katara's skill (why didn't he train more, he asked himself, and even when a fair little voice tries to tell him that he had his hands full with learning three styles of bending simultaneously as well as everything else that had happened) and the wound is severe.

Prince Zuko dies in the early hours of the morning, and Aang stands there with his hands dripping. Blood and water.

He still can't cry.

Then one of the Fire Sages in the room asks him if he knew the Waterbender who came with the Prince.

He asks them where Katara is. They show him.

His fingers are numb, but he cleans the blue necklace as best he can, even though the ribbon is almost burned to nothing.

The wind is picking up.

He asks them what happened. A sage timidly and hurriedly starts explaining. The two rode in on a sky bison, there was a duel, Zuko dove in front of Katara, and...

Wait, he says. Where is Appa? Where is the sky bison?

The beast was slain by Azula, the sage says, and continues his explanation like that was a footnote, until suddenly he can't breathe and the wind is turning into a storm.

As the sage chokes, Aang tells the others to take him to Appa, now. He needs to see.

They had dragged Appa into a stable. There's black on the white of his fur.

He stares until he can't look at Appa anymore, and then he turns around and looks at the quivering sages and ministers instead.

It was once the Fire Sages' duty to serve the Avatar, he says. You will serve me again. And together, we will remake the world.

All of them bow.

They ask him for his commands.

The reply is spoken by a thousand voices:

"Bring me Azula."

In Ba Sing Se, Iroh looks out to the city. Children are playing in the streets. Vendors are serving food at no cost (he might have indulged in a dish or two). Ba Sing Se is free, and he is happy.

And he still can't shake the feeling that something is horribly wrong.

[deadguydeathmatch]

Dead Guy Death Match Semifinals Poll: 2

[fastlikealambo]

THE CABBAGE MERCHANT IS IN THE SHOW AND PLAYED BY THE VOICE ACTOR

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Not even 10 minutes into the first episode and the show already agrees with me that the way airbender extermination is set up in the cartoon makes no sense whatsoever.

Now gimme that ritual orgy and we're cool.

[nopeferatu]

idc what people are whining abt, i actually really enjoyed the netflix avatar series. the costume and set design was really beautiful, the effects were great, the performances were great. i think people are weirded out about the pacing and i understand that, but at the same time, they're working on netflix's budget and i think they did a great job utilizing the important material in book 1 to tell as well rounded of a story as they possibly could. and like sure, i get that it was jarring to see them start at the VERY beginning instead of starting w katara and sokka finding aang like the original show does for ex, but like. idk! i think they shouldn't feel obligated to hit every plot point beat for beat and i don't think we lost anything by establishing aang's background early on. actually, every single scene with master gyatso made me fucking bawl lol. aang's loss is soooo much more palpable in this show than the original one imo bc it lingers on that pain a lot more. there were a few story choices that kinda made me scratch my head a bit, like the fact that teo wasn't introduced as part of the new Northern Air Temple population and what effects that had on aang, but i'm really not mad about it. anyways i give it two big thumbs up and i hope it gets renewed for another season

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

Okay! Overall thoughts of the new live action adaptation of Avatar

- 10/10 costume and set design. It genuinely felt like that world had come alive visually and it was beautiful to see

- The actors all did really well with what they were given and some actors were assigned perfectly for the roles

- SO MANY STUPID AND UNNECESSARY CHANGES THAT DIDN’T NEED TO HAPPEN!!! They had the time and the money and resources to not change them. Changing them was pointless

- It literally starts off wrong. We see nothing of Aang being excluded by his friends because he is the avatar. He doesn’t even run away , he just flys up to think for a bit and gets caught in the storm. We don’t get to see his turmoil over his role and the guilt he feels from wanting to run away.

- Sooooo much frustration at the lost potential of this show.

- The characters felt like flat versions of who they were in the cartoons. Aang is just sort of there. Sokka isn’t all that funny (and he took some other characters’ lines) and Katara lost ALL her spunkiness.

- The change as to who Zuko’s crew were was really good in my opinion

- The small and subtle changes in scenes (like Zuko at the war meeting or how Pakku responds to Katara fighting him) made me so frustrated because it took away from the impact

- The characterisation of Sokka and Katara’s dad was sooooooo off. He’s a completely different character and says things his cartoon counterpart would never. Also the fact Sokka did actually do his ice dodging thing ??? That took away from a pain of his character

- In the original cartoon some of the romances could feel a tad choppy at times but it’s ten times worse in this adaptation. We don’t even get to see Sokka like try to woe Yue. They just like each other

- speaking of why can she travel to the spirit world as a fox. Why did they make it so Katara and Sokka went to the spirit world. Why change that.

- SO. MUCH. TELLING. NO. SHOWING. We are TOLD allllllllll these things about the characters but hardly ever shown it. Even though they had the time to do it !! We are told Aang is a goofy kid wayyyyy more then we are ever shown it.

- removing imperative plot points and shoving them together with other ones. No people living in the air temples. No town Jet wants to let me destroyed. No Pakku recognising Katara’s strength in after their fight , only when she talks to him in the war

- the moon and ocean spirits where just sort of thrown in at the end

- Azula was shown to already have a rocky relationship with her dad which again took away from what happens later when she cracks

-the plot points about Zuko and his relationship to Zhao got all mixed up and weird

Overall I stand by my comment that watching this show felt like eating the world’s most beautiful cake only for it to taste like nothing. I was more frustrated then anything watching this because it could have been good. It could have been sooooo good. The foundations were there. The budget was there. The design was there. But for some reason they felt the need to make all these little changes that made it feel more like someone was inaccurately recounting the show while also striping the characters of what makes them who they are.

[tigerbears]

What's with amazing animated series having child soldiers?

This first came to mind when thinking of the clone wars, and later ATLA.

Ashoka was between 14 and 16 when she fought in the clone wars. (17 if you count the Siege of Mandalore)

Who in the Jedi order thought "hey, lets send the 14 year old Padawan to the front lines."

YODA WHY DID YOU SEND A 14 YEAR OLD TO THE FRONT LINES WTF! 😭

But y'know, Avatar has it worse, seeing as most of the cast is either kids or teens while y'know, fighting in a war...

Azula was flipping put in charge of hunting the Avatar when she was 14 YEARS OLD!

and Zuko was banished to search for the Avatar when he was 13!

I mean it's the fire nation and the Firelord's a f**king psychopath so yeah, that checks out.

Still though, weird if you think "oh yeah the day of black sun was planned and started by a couple of teens and tweens."

Guess there was a reason both shows didn't really address it (except for the Ashoka series I guess)

[hirosboard]

ATLA LA EPISODE 6 IS SO GOOD LIKE WHAT???? ZUKO CARRIES