#Netflix Not Working on Roku

[zutarasbuff]

I watched the Netflix adaptation of ATLA today and being a hardcore fan of the OG series who knows every nook and cranny of the ATLA world, here’s my unbiased and truly honest review (It contains both the negatives and positives of the series, so dear reader please enter to read at your own risk).

Firstly, let’s talk about the wonderful additions to the already magical world of ATLA.

1. The depth of the genocide

Well, I always wanted to know how the air nomads were suddenly wiped out and how it would have been for them? Why didn’t they resist? I got my answers in the first episode where we explore how the unhinged power of the comet was “actually” used to create a genocide on a massive level. Before that, I had only heard about it in the OG series. Those few scenes were so powerful that they had left me sobbing uncontrollably and Gyatso’s concern regarding Aang had me bawling.

2. Suki’s Characterization

In the OG series, we do find our Suki the fiercest warrior, but here in the live action, she’s an absolute goddess. She is perfect in every sense. She understands the responsibilities she has being a non-bender and is fearless. Her character is what I believe to be was the strongest one of all.

3. Graphics & Music

We never talk about a film by M.Night (that didn’t happen), but this one is really a visual treat for you can readily set yourself up for some mind-blowing bending scenes, plus the fight scenes are quite impressive. It seems that the VFX team had really done their homework this time. Plus, both Momo and Appa are so freaking cute. I loved the fluffy Appa. Good work over there. The revival of the OG theme is also a highlight plus the sun warriors’ chanting in the end is given a new but intriguing twist. The background music especially in scenes where Aang unravels his Avatar powers is mystical in every aspect.

4. Life in motion

I don’t know about others, but I have always been a sucker for animation as well as live-action where characters are operating even in the direst of the circumstances. Life is there and even after they know what happened a hundred years ago, they are still trying to believe and regain their past confidence. This is beautifully portrayed and I was very much impressed by the way people are continuing their day-to-day activities even in the middle of a crisis.

Overall, the series serves the purpose of an adaptation carrying its unique colors (at least better than the previous live-action disaster that didn’t happen).

Now let’s move to the bad side, and when I say it’s honestly what I felt, you need to take my word on it being a hardcore Atla fan.

1. Weak writing & lots of exposition

ATLA remains at a 9.2 IMDB rating even after years because of its writing, strong plot, and very few plot holes. This time, the writers are the real amateur ones. Despite addicting more to the already flourishing universe of ATLA, sadly, they killed the quest of the viewer to find answers. There is too much exposition. It seems that every character just wants to see the end of the war and keeps on revealing things after things. Plus, some of the OG moments that were the soul of the series are not even included. The way Aang finds Momo and then decides to keep it with him as a last remnant of their bygone air nomad civilization is nowhere to be found. In fact, the replacement of Roku with Kyoshi is the biggest disappointment. I love Kyoshi like no one else but that was unnecessary as per the cycle.

2. Bland acting

Even the worst writing shots can be digested only if the acting appears real good. Sadly, this is another issue that I found with the NETFLIXED version. No doubt the characters must have done a lot of hard work for this, yet, they lack the expressive power. Gordon as Aang is super cute but the goofiness is not even there. Katara seems a nerd who doesn’t like to talk much even when it’s necessary and Sokka’s jokes are forced. Meanwhile, Dallas seems to save the day at one point, but again his over-the-top angry young man attitude ruins it for me. Maybe the actors will learn from the criticism in the upcoming season (if Netflix plans to go with it).

3. Major changes

Yes, it’s okay to change the narrative while you are working on an adaptation, but targeting the loyal viewers who are OG fans of ATLA means that you have to be very careful when you are trying to implement your changes in scenes that are the real soul of the OG. You can’t change the Omashu myth as if it’s nothing when we actually see even the cute animated version of the folklore. You cannot portray Roku more as a perpetrator of the genocide and Bumi as the evil king when in truth he’s the mad king who’s known for his genius ways of teaching. I hated that. Plus, reducing Zhao’s authority and taking Uncle Iroh’s sarcastic attitude is just meh. Mai again doesn’t even seem perfect as a cast. Jet is good as far as the aesthetics are concerned but Jet being in Omashu doesn’t even sit right with me. The amalgamation of multiple storylines creates so much confusion and this persists till the end.

4. Bending at convenience

We all know how Katara’s bending progressed throughout the first season and it’s little effort each day. However, in series, one day she’s unable to bend even a droplet of water and the next day she is capable of producing ice crystals. This was unacceptable for me because I was anticipating her learning strategies. Besides, Aang doesn’t learn much water bending throughout this season and in the end, it’s him being the savior in Avatar state. Thoughtless bending sucks despite the great VFX and that’s one thing at which you can’t convince me otherwise.

5. Forced friendships

We all know how it took some time for Sokka to embrace Aang as a chum. However, here Sokka keeps on calling him “the kid” and remains mostly alienated from Aang. Talking to Katara, then she also seems more interested in helping Avatar fulfill his goal than being with a friend. I hated the scene where Aang comes into the Avatar state and instead of hugging him just like in the OG series, Katara runs along Sokka and keeps on calling his name. How is that going to build any organic friendship? I think the first mistake began right from the very moment when Aang was taken back to Wolf Cove on a boat in his unconscious state. Upon opening his eyes, the first person he finds near him is neither Katara nor Sokka but a tribesman who’s playing guessing games. Writers were really high when they wrote that.

6. Lack of the four nations’ biodiversity

Maybe in live action, it’s difficult to create all the marvels of the four nations when we talk about their natural biodiversity. In the OG series, it is indicated by Aang that even after 112 years, he has still not forgotten the animals that define different regions in the four kingdoms and that’s exactly why he wants to finish those “important tasks” alongside saving the world. His important tasks included keeping a check on the natural biodiversity of the lands and exploring whether the Hundred Years’ War had not damaged the majestic animals. Actually, his first dialogue right after regaining consciousness is to go for an otter penguin’s ride with Katara. When I thought about that I felt that somewhere in Aang’s mind he was always connected to nature and that’s why he wanted to regain that connection by being an avatar. Sadly we never see much of the biodiversity but I hoped that maybe they will.

Also, how come Aang had that silent whistle for one hundred years when in the series he only discovers that accidentally? I missed the OG Yip Yip for our Appa. There are lots and lots of problems with the Netflix version, and no I am not being a nitpicker. I appreciate how the current creators credited the original ones, but now I know why Bryan and Michael bade farewell to this project. On a scale of 10, it’s a 4 for me or 4.5 if I am being too generous.

If I am asked to review the live action in a single line, I would only say this:

“The Netflixed ATLA makes you go back to the OG series and you end up watching the animation to give your mind a much-needed respite from a carefully crafted artistic disaster aimed at the sensationalized generation.”

[aangarchy]

Netflix atla live action review ep 4-6

So, they completely ruined Bumi. Spoiler warning.

The more episodes pass by the more confused i get with the choices that were made. I wrote down commentary for the episodes and the thing that i wrote down the most was "why does this happen?". The writing is incredibly confusing and messy, feels too rushed in some spaces and too slow in others. There's just... so much going on and so little at the same time. They brought in elements that in the OG don't get introduced until later in s1, s2, the comics, or even the legend of Korra. The reason these things get introduced so early here is not clear at all, because they don't serve any purpose other than to be an obstacle to Aang, Sokka and Katara on their way to the North.

Mai and Ty Lee are.. there. They get introduced earlier but they don't serve any purpose at the moment other than stand around, watch Azula train, ask questions so that Azula can give us the answers the viewer needs. My guess is they only got introduced for the audience who watched the OG to go "oh we know them!". We get the secret tunnel story earlier too, but it has absolutely nothing to do with love. Somehow "love is brightest in the dark" now correlates to the badgermoles being able to sense a human's emotion. It's a waste of a storyline, doesn't teach us anything about love, gives us Omashu lore which is useless bc neither Sokka nor Katara actually use love to escape the tunnels. Also Oma and Shu are lesbians now, but you only know that bc they changed Shu's pronouns. Wow, so progressive! We have lesbians in the story now! Boy do i feel represented as a sapphic!

We get Koh early on as well, but his entire gig got changed. Now suddenly he doesn't steal faces but he "feeds", and hunts using the fog of lost souls (which is tlok lore mind you) as a tool to trap humans. We introduce the mother of faces (comic book lore!), or rather pendant of her that Koh owns. There's no reason for her to exist in this story though other than to be an easter egg to everyone who read the search (Not even the majority of the fandom!) and to offer a solution to this problem we've created, which is Koh capturing our friends in order to eat them and us not being able to convince him into letting them go. There's no feeling of dread in the Koh scenes at all because the whole problem of not showing emotion is just not a thing now. No suspense, no fear, just a weird cgi clown face worm. The worm doesn't even menacingly circle around Aang to invoke a feeling of being surrounded, it just sits there. I also just don't understand why Koh is here already bc now who is going to give us information about Tui and La?

This decision also creates a problem that Hei Bai's story just isn't about Hei Bai anymore. We get fed a few lines from a talking fox about how the forest spirit got hurt, but there's really no solution? Aang buries a pinecone in front of the statue and tells him not to give up hope but he didn't even really need to do that, because Hei Bai wasn't the one kidnapping villagers! It was Koh. Why did we appease Hei Bai if Koh was the real villain? Hei Bai/Koh's story leads us to Roku, but Roku is completely useless. All he does is undermine Kyoshi's advice to Aang, tell Aang about the mother of faces pendant so he can appease Koh, and then we leave. I knew in advance Roku wasn't going to warn Aang about the comet here bc Albert Kim already told us working with a deadline like that with child actors is just impossible. But with Roku suddenly not being Aang's main Avatar guide he just gets nothing to do. There's no suspense in this part of the story either, bc the time limit of the winter solstice isn't a thing here at all. Aang also ends up flying over Fire Nation borders without issue, and gets led right into the sanctuary without the puzzle of figuring out how to open the door, and without the problem of Zhao's soldiers waiting for him when he comes out. It creates this issue of there not being any excitement, at least for me. I genuinely am getting a bit bored with the show, which was never an issue with the OG for me. There's a reason all of this extra material didn't get introduced until later on. There's too many characters and they all get too little time to really do anything useful, they're not fleshed out, the stories aren't thought through and it ends up getting very confusing and boring. I'm genuinely curious for the perspective of people who have never watched the OG cartoon, bc i wonder if they're even able to follow along without prior knowledge of this universe.

Bumi is just... not Bumi. They completely changed his character to be this bitter old senile man that resents Aang for abandoning the world. This doesn't make any sense because in this version of the story Bumi shouldn't know that Aang is the Avatar at all, because Aang was told right before he disappeared! So why does Bumi immediately know that Aang is the Avatar, and why does Aang immediately recognize him? Also the original point of Bumi's tests is to get Aang to approach fights and puzzles from a different angle, so he can learn versatility as the Avatar. But here the tests are just happening because Bumi is mad at Aang for leaving and wants to get back at him for being gone so long. He says some lines about Aang having to learn to make hard choices and you can't rely on your friends, but Aang ends up proving him wrong in the end! What is even the point of Bumi's part in the story now, except for him just being another obstacle on the way to the North Pole?

There's a lot of instances where I feel like the bond between characters gets completely lost. We barely spend any time with the side characters like the mechanist, Teo, Jet and the freedom fighters, and the people in the spirit village. It makes some scenes feel very out of place. These storylines all happen at once, and they don't get their individual moments to shine. We have no room to feel betrayed by Jet or Sai, because we barely got to know them to begin with. Jet and Sai only spend time with One member of the gaang each, but when their betrayals come to light the rest of the group acts devastated, as if it was their dear friend. Sokka also gets really mad about the Jet thing, but he only met Jet once when he smuggled them into Omashu, and Jet didn't even tell Sokka his name. He said it afterwards when Katara met him again. It makes absolutely no sense why Sokka is yelling at Katara for trusting Jet only bc she finds him attractive, when Sokka wasn't even there during all of that!

The sense of family between the gaang that we get from the original also just doesn't happen here. Especially because these characters so far have spent more time apart than together. Aang constantly gets separated from Sokka and Katara, leaving no room for them to bond. We get Katara and Sokka bonding, but they shouldn't need those types of scenes because they're already siblings (which isn't very clear in the show either btw!). I ended up forgetting that Sokka and Katara were trapped by Koh, bc we spend so much time away from them (a whole episode, which is now an hour!).

I have little to no criticism for the Blue Spirit story. Want to guess why that is? Bc they left it pretty much untouched. We even get a little bit of an extra scene, with Zuko and Aang talking while Zuko recovers after getting hurt during the escape. I liked this choice, especially bc it highlights how conflicted Zuko is.

This is where we get Zuko's backstory. I have one question here: why did they make Ozai more sensible and less ruthless? Was that a Daniel Dae Kim decision? Bc it feels like a Daniel Dae Kim thing to do. They're very on the nose with the way Ozai is abusing Zuko and Azula, but then they turn around and make this man visit Zuko after he burned him and praise Zuko about finding the Avatar. I understand that they did this to show how Ozai uses Zuko's accomplishments in order to push Azula, but even if it were to do that: the original Ozai would NEVER. The problem here as well is that they don't let the viewers draw any conclusions themselves anymore. They're holding the viewer's hand through the whole thing, leaving no room for nuance or doubt.

I just finished episode 7 and 8 and I have Things To Say. None of which are good. Writing it down is challenging so it might take a day or two.

[saijspellhart]

Netflix Avatar Series - An extremely succinct review

It’s fucking good. Go watch it.

I’d write a whole ass review detailing why, but it’s late and I’m tired. I have so many thoughts about the series, and critical break downs for why I think a lot of the creative decisions worked. And even thoughts about how I think it could have been improved.

But overall I was not disappointed by this show. And if you love avatar Kyoshi from the novels… well let’s just say the creators were paying attention to the novels, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yang Chen, Roku… ;3

Please try to go into this series with an open mind.

It’s not a shot for shot remake. And honestly who would fucking want another Lion King situation.

Anyway. Loved this ATLA series almost as much as I loved the original cartoon, and I hope they get a season two.

[low-budget-korra]

Comments on Netflix's Avatar The Last Airbender

*spoiler alert*

First of all I'm gonna start by saying it is one of the best adaptations I've seen so far. And that's the key word, adaptation. I've seen a lot of fans and others complain about some things that honestly, doesn't make sense because some things only work in a cartoon(just as much as some things only work in a book or a video game)

And before I start to talk about some topics that I judge important, I also wanna say that the production is fantastic, from the costumes to the CGI. It all looks amazing. (A part from Yue's wig)

1. The Script

It's not easy to pick 20+ episodes and make it fit in only 8 but damn they did a hell of a good job, especially when judging what was important to show and what they could let it go. Some fans commented that since there's no fillers, the Gaang and others miss some development but I think that for the universe of the live action what we got here it worked.

I can express how much I like to see Ozai and Azula's relationship and how it is now clear that he uses the siblings against each other, manipulating them to get what he wants. But I will admit I miss the fear Azula had, since it's implied in the show and some extras that she does fear Ozai, and fears becoming like Zuko.

I hope the 41. Is just fine after the battle in the north. See all of them bowing to Zuko after discovering that Zuko was the one that saved their asses and was heavily punished by that...it was beautiful. I loved the writers did that, give names and faces to Zuko's crew and a beautiful yet sad arc when Ozai banished his son and the men who he saved.

I also loved that they put weight into things that was treated as a joke, like Katara talking about her mother. She was a little kid who saw her mom get murdered in front of her and the live action made sure to let us know that it is not okay to make jokes about something so traumatic. All of the deaths here have tons of weight in it, it's not some random person, is someone we met, someone we liked, someone who helped. The costs of the war, something the cartoon manages to show us but know in live action, with real people, the massage gets stronger.

And they didn't forget Iroh's past like the fandom does, which is great. That actor, the earthbending soldier really let it all out, that's how you use the few screentime you have.

Sokka's isn't sexist and y'all were making a storm outta a cup of water, is not like Sokka sexist didn't go away after like the 4 or 5 episode in the original show. I think the live action was able to bring more depth to him in comparison to the first season of the cartoon. We see how he feels about his father's, the absence of him and his duty as warrior who kinda doesn't want to be a warrior.

I need a Gyatso in my life, I didn't know I needed to see more of him until the live action gave us more of him. Kyoshi was the Thor coming to Wakanda from this season, WHY THE FUCK BRYKE DONT WANNA GIVE US A KYOSHI SERIES? She is absolutely a jewel of a character. Roku and Kuruk, damn poor Kuruk man, so much pain in his words but again that's what it means to be the Avatar, it's not fun and games. Zhao saying to Aang what Korra villains said to Korra😭 that the world doesn't need the Avatar anymore, it hurt.

Guys I'm gonna say it, there's no way in hell for anyone to ship Kataang here. I'm saying this because some shippers complain that the secret tunnel part was different but c'mon, look at Kiawentiio and look at Gordon, it would be so s awkward and weird and just wrong. I know they don't have a big age difference, is only like 3 years but when they filmed Gordon looked so much younger than her, maybe in the next seasons the difference won't be that big.

The pace is good, once you start you don't wanna stop.

2. The Acting

Everyone is really good at capturing the essence of it's characters and somewhat making them their own. The highlights for me were Dallas and Ian, Its like they came straight from the show. Ken Leung's Zhao was also amazing as he was way more threatening here than he was in the show.

Kiawentiio was the Katara we were looking for, she is kind yet strong, brave and caring. And Gordon was Aang, sure, he has to learn a few things since he slipped a few times in his acting but nothing that could ruin the experience, that kid is good and just needs some experience.

Elizabeth Yu was Azula. It was different but yet the same character, is like learning something new of her and I like how cleared she show emotions with her eyes. Maria Zhang had great chemistry with Ian and I can't wait to see more of Suki. Arden Cho and Yvonne Chapman as June and Avatar Kyoshi look like they came out straight from the cartoon. Daniel Dae Kim...man is Ozai, so cold, so sharp, so scary, already way better than the cartoon version. I wanna see more of Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh since the character he really starts to shine in book 2.

3. The live action doesn't have the spirit of the OG?

Yes, it does have. The thing is now that we are seeing real people, things get dark one way or another but I don't think it ruined the spirit of the show. Aang is still a kid, Sokka still making sarcastic jokes, Zuko still annoying as hell, Katara still hopeful and strong... There's everything there really.

The thing is stuff like genocide, murder, war, death and suffering are, for some people, better to watch as pixels in a cartoon than real people.

I think it's a great adaptation and I would recommend it to every fan.

[pure-jeff-ward]

Jeff Ward Masterpost!

Hey guys! So I decided that maybe it'd be easier if we had a collected space for all of Jeff's works which we have access to, I did update his films/tv page on my blog but the links will be included in this post. I figured I can just keep this pinned to the top of my blog? Please, please let me know if there's something I've missed or if you have access to something that can be added here! I appreciate each and every one of you who always helps me out!!!

It is completely out of order, apologies!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Disney+

One Piece - Netflix

Brand New Cherry Flavor - Netflix

Vamperifica - Roku Channel - Freevee

Manson's Lost Girls - Youtube

Found Footage Movie Taped Over Super Embarrassing Video - Youtube

Speed Dating - Youtube

Sunday Love Music Video - Youtube

Holly's Holiday - Tubi - Pluto TV (Also available on Hulu & Peacock!)

The Beauty Inside - S1E1 - "Hello, My Name Is Alex" - Youtube

Hacks - Hulu

PEN15 - Hulu

The Girlfriend Game - Vimeo

Take Me Out With The Stars - Vimeo

Imaginary Circumstances - Vimeo

Bad TV Pitches: Orphan Flippers - Youtube

Fund The Bat - Youtube

Plus One - Tubi

The Boy Downstairs - Prime Video & Peacock - Tubi - Pluto TV

555 - Episode 3 - Actor - Vimeo

Rosewood - S1E14 - "Hydrocephalus and Hard Knocks" - Hulu

The Mentalist - S7E8 - "The Whites of His Eyes" - HBO Max or Roku Channel

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - S5E6 - "In the Wee Small Hours" - Peacock

Body of Proof - S2E7 - "Hard Knocks" - Hulu

Channel Zero: No End House - SyFy

[burst-of-iridescent]

atla live action thoughts: episode 6

SPOILERS AHEAD

tw: opinions

things i liked:

love the moment where roku tells aang friends can be a liability and you can see in his face that he's thinking of sozin

koh lore is interesting. funnily enough i've also written koh being the son of the mother of faces in a fic before so i see netflix has been hitting up ao3

(for legal reasons, that was a joke)

i like zhao forcing zuko to turn aang over more than him capturing aang with the yuyan archers himself like in the original. this 100% feels like something animated zhao would do and it really drives home how much of a disadvantage zuko's at. this is the dynamic i wanted to see between the two of them

lmao @ zhao wanting to get every detail of his capture of the avatar in writing, and aang blowing air at him to send him falling over himself. they pulled that right from the original and it's great

BLUE SPIRIT TIME BABY

this fight (well the parts of it that i can see) is SO GOOD. pretty sure it's almost a shot for shot remake of the original and zuko and aang are working together seamlessly

oh i fucking LOVE that zuko and aang are trapped together and get to talk. zuko smiling despite himself... aang trying so earnestly to get through to him... the way zuko actually seems to be listening to him before he hears the word compassion... chef's kiss this was an INSPIRED change

"do you think we could've been friends too?"

the transitions from younger, happier zuko to older, traumatized zuko are fucking painful. the one where he looks into the mirror to see his unscarred, smiling self for just a moment before it flashes to his present reality... next time just shoot me netflix

"he will recover" "but he will never heal"

young zuko lying in bed sobbing as he's banished by his own father what if i killed myself

HIS CREW BEING THE 41st DIVISION HE LOST EVERYTHING TO PROTECT whichever writer suggested that needs a raise posthaste

"our prince" who is cutting all of these fucking onions

things i disliked/am conflicted about:

this is where the show suffers as an adaptation, because if the animation didn't exist, the agni kai would've been fine. zuko trying to dodge, having the chance to hurt ozai yet actively choosing not to out of love, being beaten up, pinned down and brutally burned as he whimpers in fear - all of that works on its own. it conveys zuko's compassion and ozai's brutality just fine, but not to the level that the cartoon does. the scene is brutal in both versions but animated zuko not even trying to fight, sobbing and begging on his knees, and being maimed anyway just hits harder than the netflix version

not sure if i saw it right but it seemed as though there were tears in ozai and azula's eyes??? i can maybe see it for this version of azula but in no world would ozai be crying over burning zuko. it feels like they're trying to make this version of ozai more complex but he was FINE as a classic villain

that being said, i do like ozai holding zuko's hand to his heart as he burns him. the symbolism of zuko trying to reach for his father's love while ozai permanently brands his cruelty on his son... ate

i don't even like roku in the animation all that much but his presence has been weirdly reduced in the show, even though he's the avatar aang is closest to. aang having to take on the burden of redeeming roku's failure is a significant part of their dynamic and i want more of that

hollywood i'm begging you to shoot night scenes that people can see because parts of the blue spirit and aang fight sequence were so dark i looked like the squinting lady meme

i really wish we'd still gotten the moment in the storm where zuko saved the helmsman. i know they kinda replaced it with the crew realizing they were only alive because of zuko's sacrifice, but they could've done both to show how much zuko still cares, even if he can't show it

how are we 3/4th of the way into the season and aang is STILL ONLY BENDING AIR

overall rating: 9/10. definitely the best of the series so far and i love how they expanded on zuko's backstory and his relationship to aang

[tainted-liquor]

'Exchange With Me...꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱₊˚⊹ ft. Pavitr Prabhakar

...‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.

Ingredients: sugar, kisses, and a lil bit of smiles!

TWs: Makeout, Implied that you're not rlly supposed to be kissing pav?

A/N: reader has an unlabelled relationship with pav?

part 2 to 'exchange with me'! You're gonna need to read that first bae lol

It had been 9 months since you gave Pav a tour of Brooklyn, showing him all the hidden hole-in-the-walls and best places to go to get food. As he spent more time around you and your mom, he polished his English in a fascinating amount of time and became more social than before. Admittedly, there were some awkward little bumps in the road regarding you being his 'host', and the occasional lingering stare or two. Or maybe it was how your hugs got tighter...or how your hands tangled themselves together almost every time you were within a foot of each other. But that came with the close proximity and comfortability levels! Shit, you shared the same bathroom, learning the hard way to always shower with the shower curtain fully closed.

These were normal experiences for two people living under the same roof! It came with the package of having a 'stranger' in your house, so you weren't bothered by anything, really. "Pavi, can you pass me the remote?" You asked as flopped down on the couch, hoisted your left leg across the entire couch, and slumped down as comfortably as possible. Pavitr side-eyed you, looking your slouched form up and down before sporting a playful scowl. "Oh, word? So you come into MY HOUSE. USE MY COCONUT OIL-" You began, tone increasing in volume as you laughed with each syllable. "AAAH, I SAID I WAS SORRY!" He yelped, immediately handing you the remote with a loud laugh and an apologetic smile.

"And move over you're taking up the whole room" He joked, picking you up like you weighed nothing and placing you further to the right. "Damn, what the fuck?! You lift?" You gasped. You stared at him with pure shock, and yeah he did have a 'strong' physique, but it was nothing over the top that screamed 'I can casually lift a 122-pound girl with one arm and a tiny bit of willpower'. “Uhh…I guess!” He smiled, immediately returning his attention to the TV without another word and urging you to pick a show. Odd, but that’s fine!

"So what we watchin'? The news, Netflix, random show?" You inquired while surfing through the many applications on the Roku box. "Uhhh...Something random I don't mind" Pav shrugged, throwing the cream-colored couch blanket across his body and fidgeting with his headband. You clicked the random button, watching as 'We Lost Our Human' began to illuminate the dark living room. You weren't really watching the show, instead, you put mini blue butterfly clips in your twin afro puffs while holding a conversation with Pav about different types of food and seltzers, working up an appetite in the process. "D'you wanna go make food? I got like...some ingredients up in the fridge." You shrugged, straightening your posture before scrolling through your phone for an easy recipe.

"Yeah, this show isn't really...that entertaining." Pav shrugged, immediately raising himself up from the couch as he loomed over your phone screen to see what was nearby. "I can make us some soup though!" Pav beamed as he eagerly ran into the kitchen, grabbing various vegetables and herbs, and getting to work immediately. You sat next to the stove on top of the counter, watching his beautiful knife work as he finely chopped up 4 onions. You lifted your knees to your chest, fluffy grippy socks hanging onto the marbled counter as you stared inside the big red pot he currently had on the stove, muttering a tiny "What you bouta make?" Pav smiled to himself, keeping his eyes on his cutting board as while he spoke, "French onion soup! I saw the recipe on TikTok and I wanted to try making it!"

Your eyes widened in amazement and shock, tilting your head to the side. "You can do that?" You asked, watching as he replicated a recipe from absolute memory. He nodded, tossing butter, salt, pepper and a little bit of a maggi cube into the pot along with the onions. You watched the pot intently, letting the gorgeous aroma of aromatics and onions invade your senses while Pavitr watched you. "You're very pretty" Pav blurted, putting his knife down on the cutting board, leaning his head on his hands and admiring your angelic features.

You muttered a bashful 'thank you', beckoning him to come closer before you began making little braids in his hair. There was no noise other than the quiet sizzle of the caramelizing onions, and your synced heartbeats. You ran your hands down his face, cupping his cheeks in your palms and giving them a small squeeze before placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. Pav giggled, cute little canines poking out of his grin as he snapped his eyes shut at the ticklish sensation. He mirrored your action, kissing your 'third eye' and pecking at the tip of your nose.

You spent the next 15 minutes in the kitchen, consistently checking on the slow-cooked onions and bantering back and forth. It was adorable. The atmosphere was full of that warm and fuzzy 'home' sensation and somehow felt like the world around you didn't exist outside of the blissful comfort of the kitchen. You helped him the rest of the way with the soup, adding the beef broth and red cooking wine to the mix and letting the pot simmer for an hour or so. Pav suddenly broke the silence as he peered over the lid, watching the condensation cloud the glass cover.

It was peaceful, and that's how you liked your humble home to stay. There was no real confirmation, and you liked it like that for the most part. While things were slightly more complicated due to you being Pav's host, that didn't necessarily stop you two from wrapping your arms around each other and coating your faces in small kisses. This time was different though. Your hands were loosely wrapped around his neck while his hands found purchase on the small of your back. There was a consistent rhythm and pattern to the kiss that you found yourselves trapped in. The soup was long forgotten on the stove as you giggled into each other's mouths like children.

"I think I'm gonna stay in Brooklyn!"

"Pav I think you should check on the soup."

"OH!"

Taglist!

@ashsostrange @chessbox @janaeby @fivestardior @an1bara @bachirasegoist @sp1derw1re

[natlacentral]

Secret Auditions Where The Actors Had No Clue What They Were Auditioning For, And 22 Other Behind-The-Scenes Facts I Learned About "Avatar: The Last Airbender"

Albert Kim, executive producer and showrunner of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, has a massive task on his hands. After M. Night Shyamalan's live-action film left viewers disheartened, fans have been craving an adaptation that truly captures the heart of one of the most popular animated series in history. I was honored to speak with Albert, who was warm and welcoming, yet protective and passionate about his live-action adaptation. We spoke in depth about the differences between the animated series and his Netflix show, the motives behind those changes, and what was important to leave the same. 🚨 There are spoilers ahead for ATLA Season 1 🚨

1. Albert wanted to strike a balance between the episodic format of the animated show and his more serialized motives for the live-action adaptation.

"We always used the original as our guide for everything. It wasn't like we were creating a whole new story out of whole cloth, we were looking at all the stories of the the first season of the original, regardless of whether they were episodic, or led to a more serialized narrative. And then we kind of laid them out in front of us at the beginning of the season, and said, 'Which ones help us in getting from the beginning to the end of the season.' Because we knew we were trying to create a narrative thread that took us on a journey from the Southern Water Tribe to the Northern Water Tribe. And so once we had that framework in place, certain elements just started clicking into place. We could see something like Jet. Jet is a great character, who has all the right intentions, but has been driven into a bad place by the extremes of war. And then we could see a character like The Mechanist; same thing. Good character, good heart, but doing some bad things because of the war. And you know what? He would be in direct conflict with Jet. So let's bring them together. That meant taking them out of their original locations and then putting them somewhere like Omashu. It was a little bit of putting a puzzle together in that way. And as we did that we realized we could preserve the feeling of the original in those adventures. It was a challenge, and we had to walk a tightrope to do it. But that's the case with pretty much everything in the show."

2. Albert has been a fan of the original show for years, because his daughter would watch the animated series when she was a kid.

"I was a huge fan of the original ever since my daughter started watching it when she was a kid."

3. Albert used references from the animated series to change how the Avatar State would work in live-action.

"There's an episode in the second season, "Avatar Day," when Kyoshi inhabits [Aang's] body. It's a very short sequence in the original series, and slightly more for comedic effect. But we thought we could use that, and combine that with what we saw on the Roku episode. Roku also manifests through Aang, and we used that early on, because we needed the audience to understand what the Avatar State was and how powerful it was. In the second episode, we were traveling to Kyoshi Island, so we said, 'Why not use Kyoshi to do that?' We can't wait until we get to Roku's Temple to do that, so let's use Kyoshi. There's precedent for it in the original series, and we can adapt our rules for the Avatar State. There are little tweaks we made to the canon here and there to help us understand a little more of why this was important for [Aang]."

4. Albert spoke with Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (the creators of the animated series) before embarking on his showrunner journey and was "bummed" when they exited the Netflix series. 

"When I got the call [to work on the series], I was really excited just for nothing else [other] than the opportunity to talk to Bryan and Mike, and kind of indulge my inner nerd about the show. Our first conversations, were me just asking a lot of Aang questions, and stuff like that. And, that was great. And then we got into the process of talking about what the show could be and the visions they had for it. And what I thought I could bring to the table as someone who hadn't been so intimately involved with the original, or the development process they had been involved with. I really enjoyed that process. I enjoyed collaborating with them and working with them. At around the time I had written the pilot episode, they had decided, for personal reasons, to leave the project. And I can't really speak to those reasons. They had been involved, obviously, for some time before I joined the project. And I was bummed about it, because I genuinely enjoyed working with them, talking to them, all of that. And I had hoped we could continue. But again, that was their personal decision."

5. Albert has never seen The Last Airbender film by M. Night Shyamalan 

"I haven't seen it and it just sort of fell through the cracks for me beforehand. And then when I started working on this project, I deliberately avoided it, because I didn't really want to have those images or the creative choices they made in my head. I wanted to be independent."

6. However, Albert was aware of the criticisms of Shyamalan's film.

"That's not to say I wasn't aware of the criticisms of [Shyamalan's film]. I knew what people didn't like about it. And I don't think we were reacting specifically to those criticisms, but a lot of the choices we were already organically making corrected a lot of that. For instance, I always knew that we were going to be casting all Asian and Indigenous for this. It wasn't in reaction to what Shyamalan did in this feature. That would have happened if the feature didn't even exist. I know how it appears in certain cases, it looks like we may have been doing something in reaction to what happened in [his] film, but I never saw it."

7. Michael Goi, who directed the first two episodes of Netflix's adaptation, is still trying to get Albert to watch Shyamalan's film.

"Michael, our director of the first two episodes, he keeps teasing me trying to get me to watch this movie. Now that we're all done, he keeps inviting me over to his house. He's going to put up a screening room so we can all watch together. I said, 'I've gone this long. I'm not gonna break the record now.'"

8. Although the animated series does not show the decimation of the Air Nomads, Albert felt it was "important" for him to include it in the Netflix show to set the stakes for the series.

"I felt it was important to see that event, which is discussed often in the original, but never seen because, for me, it sets the stakes for the world. It shows you what it is that Aang is trying to stop. And without actually understanding that viscerally, for new viewers as much as for the diehard fans, it was a little hard to go on the emotional journey with him. You have to know what he's facing. And what he's facing is this incredible attack. And when you watch it, you see both the power of the Fire Benders, as well as the struggle that the Air Nomads faced, as well as their destruction and the death. And when Aang gets to ask himself, 'How am I as a 12-year-old kid able to stop that,' you understand it a lot more. It'd feel a lot more abstract as a burden and responsibility for him if we hadn't witnessed that."

9. Albert also felt that starting the series with the Fire Nation attack on the Air Nomads narratively helped viewers understand that he wanted to expand and differentiate the feeling from the animated series.

"Narratively kicking off the show with [the Fire Nation attack] helped, in my mind, send the signal that this was not going to be a note for note translation of the original. We weren't going to tell the story in the exact same way, with the exact same scenes and the exact same dialogue. We were starting off in a different direction. And signaling that this is our version of Avatar: The Last Airbender."

10. Albert felt that including the Agni Kai between Zuko and Firelord Ozai, which was also not shown in the animated series, was needed to flesh out who Zuko is as a character.

"The Agni Kai is so important to Zuko's character, it really forms who he is. And that's the same in the animated series as well. They just didn't show it. And I can understand why, because it's very intense and emotional. And possibly a little too intense for say, a Nickelodeon audience. But for a Netflix serialized drama, which is intended to be for all ages of viewers from 10 to 80, it felt like it was appropriate to show that scene. To show exactly what it is that made Zuko into the person he is. That was something I always knew we were going to do. And I don't think anyone would argue that it isn't the linchpin to Zuko's character. Not showing it felt to me, a little bit irresponsible."

11. Tying Zuko's ship crew, and his intention of saving their lives, into the Agni Kai storyline was Albert's way of expanding on the original in a way that felt organic.

"That was a great example of our entire philosophy for this series, which is that we were drawing upon familiar elements from the original, but then pushing certain things a little bit further. Fans are gonna recognize a lot of the events and scenes in that episode from the original. But then we also extrapolated a little bit, and added elements that felt true to the spirit of the original, but hopefully adds a slightly new dimension. Making his crew the ones that he saved, it felt like it was right for the moment."

12. Changing the gender of Shu, and making the Omashu love story a tale of forbidden queer love felt "apt" to Albert.

"I remember even in the original when I was watching the tale of two lovers, I don't know why maybe I wasn't paying attention, I actually thought they were [both] women. And someone in the writers' room corrected me. So I said, 'Oh, well, it feels a little more right if they are women because it's supposed to be a forbidden romance.' Even in the original, there was a reason they couldn't be together. And they had to hide their love. Which ends tragically, but then leads to a piece of understanding. And for those reasons, it felt like making them both women actually was apt for this story."

13. When it came to casting, Albert wanted to make sure the actors were "ethnically and age-accurate."

"Our casting process was thorough. We saw a lot of great actors and great performers. We always knew it was going to be a challenge. Because we were all committed to making sure we were ethnically and age-accurate. We knew that we didn't want to cast a 20-year-old playing a 12-year-old, and we wanted to cast someone who was Asian. We always knew it was going to be tough."

14. The casting was done secretly, meaning none of the actors knew what they were auditioning for.

"It was even more challenging for them, because the casting process was conducted in top secret. They did not know they were auditioning for Avatar. And I had to write fake scenes for all of them. I think [the fake scenes] were about some math wiz applying to a private academy. Gordon, when he was auditioning, didn't know he was auditioning for anything."

15. There was never a doubt that Gordon Cormier should be cast as Aang, even after Albert auditioned several other actors for the role.

"When we saw people like Gordon, there was something about him that just captured the essence of the character. And we kept coming back to him even after we kept seeing other actors who were great. A lot of them were incredibly talented. But after every discussion I would have with the producers, we would always say something like, 'But what about Gordon.' And then we would come back to him, and we kept coming back to him. What we were looking for was a certain spark, a certain essence that said, 'This is who [Aang] is.' And that's what we kept seeing. It didn't matter what the scene was, it was just his personality, his overall character that was shining through. And I think you see that when you see the show. A lot of people I know are a little weary about our version of Aang. But when you watch it, and you see Gordon in his performance, I don't think there's any doubt. He doesn't even have to say a line of dialogue for him to be Aang. He could just give you a look, or a smile. And he's that way in person. He was like that on set every single day. I can't count the number of times crew members would come up to me and say, 'This kid is Aang.' Even when he's not on camera, he is Aang. Whether he was hopping on the back of a camera car, or running around with the other kids. We were incredibly happy that we found him, and all the others."

16. Although Sokka is less sexist at the beginning of the journey than his animated counterpart, Albert felt that they "preserved" his character growth in other ways.

"It wasn't a matter of, say, removing anything from his character. He still has a complex and nuanced journey. But in the process of going from an animated series, to a live-action, we knew that we wanted to portray his journey with a little more groundedness and subtlety. He starts out with attitudes that are the result of living in an isolated life and community. And yes, some of them are rooted in sexism. But he's not out there saying, 'Girls sew and guys hunt.' People have been reacting to comments without having seen the show. When you do watch it, I think it'll become clear that we've preserved Sokka's character, flaws and all. And he has a journey that's as complex as the one you saw in the original. It's just not a one-to-one."

17. Albert also felt that he had more room to build Sokka's character than his sister, Katara.

"Sokka was a character that there was a little more room to add to his character. Katara had trauma over her mother's death, and it's well told in the original. Sokka, we had to fill in the gaps a little bit more, especially for this first season. It was one of the things that struck us immediately. The question of imagining, if you're Sokka, and you're left alone by your father, to take care of your entire community at that young of an age. That's got to be a great burden. And what does that do to him, because his character is naturally lighthearted and funny, and a little bit goofy. But he's got this incredible responsibility to bear. And what does that do to someone? We play with that all season long until you get to the episode [with Koh]."

18. Bringing Azula into the first season as a main character, although that doesn't happen until the second season in the animated series, helped "dimensionalize" Zuko and his family.

"We had the benefit of hindsight, and we knew where the original series was going. And we knew what a great character both Ozai and Zula were going to be. And we wanted to pull a little of that into the first season just to balance out the storytelling a little bit. Creatively speaking, we wanted to use the characters of Azula and Ozai to help dimensionalize Zuko a little more, and then help us understand exactly how he became who he became outside of just the Agni Kai, and that traumatic event. Even though physically, Zuko and Azula are never together in the first season, it doesn't matter. You can still see how the dynamics of this family made him who he was, just like it made Azula who she was. In a way, the first season is a little bit of a prequel story for Azula because when she arrives in the cartoon in the second season, she's kind of fully formed as a character. Here we see a little more of her journey as to how she gets there."

19. Albert feels like the Zuko/Azula/Ozai relationship is representative of an Asian family dynamic. 

"And to me, it's very much an Asian story, not that it's limited only to Asian families. But that pressure to exceed the parental expectations. The sibling rivalry all feel, from my personal point of view, like an Asian story."

20. The actors went through an intense six-week boot camp to train for their fighting scenes

"We're incredibly fortunate in that both Dallas [Liu, Zuko] and Ian [Ousley, Sokka] came to us as incredibly accomplished martial artists. Both of them are world-class in their fields. They already knew what they were doing. And even with that, we put all four of them through a pretty intense boot camp before we even started shooting. It was about six weeks, where they trained with the stunt team every day, in order to learn all of the bending techniques."

21. Kiawentiio, who plays Katara, was more "tentative" at first about her action scenes but acclimated beautifully, which helped her character's progression on screen.

"For someone like Kiawentiio, who didn't have a background in martial arts, she started out a little more tentative, in terms of physical movements. But that worked for her character because Katara is not supposed to be an accomplished water bender at the beginning, and as the season progressed, and as Kiawentiio got better and better, Katara got better and better. It worked really well in terms of the progression of her character."

22. The massive action sequences were hard to pull off, and took a lot of set building and choreography.

"Some of the epic action sequences were challenging to do. Whether it's the escape from Pohuai, where we built an entire wall of that prison, and then also had bamboo ladders, and an army of stunt people going through all of that. It was tough. Also, the fights in the finale; the giant battle sequences between the Northern Water Tribe. For those we built a huge section of Agna Qel'a, with the bridge and the wall and scores of extras running through it, and fighting, that was incredibly challenging, as well. The Southern Air Temple fight in the very first episode was another epic undertaking. Those were all really challenging. We relied on the skills of the stunt teams and everyone involved to pull that off."

23. And lastly, Aang's first meeting and conversation with Zuko was the hardest scene to capture on an emotional scale for Albert.

"Emotionally speaking, certain scenes where I felt it was crucial to the season, and would be challenging for the performance [was filming] the scene between Zuko and Aang. The scene between Zuko and Aang, after the "Blue Spirit" episode, when they're hiding out together, away from the Fire Nation soldiers. The first bonding of them. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous going into that scene because I thought it was so important. It's the first time the two of them get to really talk. But once Gordon and Dallas started getting into it, all my weariness melted away because they were so good at it. They did the whole scene all the way through, and it was incredible to watch. But for me, if we didn't get that scene right, a lot of things wouldn't have worked for the season. Or, frankly, for the entire series. We needed to understand who these characters were, how they go from being enemies to having certain bonds, and how that sets the stage for everything else to come."

[theeeveetamer]

Avatar the Last Expositionbender: Thoughts on the new Netflix adaptation from a near 20-year-long fan of ATLA (first three episodes)

Disclaimer: I’ve been a huge fan of ATLA since literally the day it dropped on February 21st, 2005. I’ve probably seen the original show at least 200 times all the way through. That said, I absolutely am trying to go into this Netflix show with an open mind. I don’t want to denigrate it just because it’s not exactly the same as the original.

I can't draw any final conclusions because I've only watched through episode 3, but my impressions are... not good. I’m going to try and leave some of the nitpickier stuff to my live tweeting thread and just focus on the big things here.

My biggest takeaway thus far is that the show has decent to great special effects, set design, and cinematography, and it is just ALL completely let down by an atrocious script and bizarre changes to both the plot and characters. I don’t think any one decision is the decision that’s breaking this show for me. I think it’s a death-of-a-thousand-cuts kind of breaking the show for me.

(A lot) more below the cut

Let’s start with the structure. The original ATLA is a serialized show (there is one overarching plot), but each episode is smaller scale with short plotlines that are resolved within the runtime of one or two episodes (leans more episodic). The Netflix adaptation seems to drop this format and centers the main plot in pretty much every episode. Many of the little stories still technically happen, but they’re reframed to be in service to the greater plot. E.g. They no longer visit Kyoshi because Aang just wanted to have a fun little adventure and ride some giant fish, he does so because he needs to learn more about the Avatar from Kyoshi.

This is not an inherently negative change, but it is a negative change in this case and I’ll tell you why: it completely destroys the character building that the original series was known so well for. Let me explain.

I can point to any episode in the series and immediately tell you if it's a Katara-centric episode, a Sokka-centric episode, a Zuko-centric episode, etc. I can tell you exactly what the characters did, what the themes were, and how the characters have grown from beginning to end. I can tell you the threads that were woven in which ultimately serve the larger plot, from huge shifts to tiny threads you wouldn’t even notice.

I’ll take episode 2 from the Netflix series and compare it to the three episodes I believe it’s based on: The Warriors of Kyoshi and The Winter Solstice (parts 1 and 2).

In the original series all three of these episodes are largely Aang-centric, with significant moments developing Sokka as well. Kyoshi is the point at which Aang’s lackadaisical attitude toward being the Avatar is significantly challenged for the first time. He spends significant time in Kyoshi being fawned over and messing around despite realistically having done nothing to earn that praise. It’s the damage to his friendship with Katara + Zuko coming in which ultimately humbles him. The Winter Solstice episodes are where Aang’s determination and goal is solidified and a sense of urgency is developed.

On Sokka’s end, Kyoshi is a significant moment for him as a character. He has some of his core beliefs challenged and not only does it humble him, he apologizes and works to better himself. In The Winter Solstice episodes (particularly part 2) we see, for the first time, glimmers of his ingenuity and his role as the idea/plan guy with how he develops a plan to open the door so Aang can speak to Roku.

In terms of the plot, The Warriors of Kyoshi ultimately doesn’t have much to say at this moment, but it is setup for later payoffs in seasons 2 and 3 (the Kyoshi Warrior ruse Azula pulls in Ba Sing Se, Suki’s presence in The Boiling Rock and subsequently joining the Gaang, etc.) so it’s not wasted. The Winter Solstice is where Aang gets crucial information about the world and solidifies his goal (stop the Fire Nation before the arrival of the comet).

Ultimately we discover something important about Sokka, and Aang has a significant moment of character development where he decides to put aside his own ego, stop messing around, and focus on saving the world.

What do we see in Episode 2 of the Netflix series?

Sokka has a kind of awkward relationship with Suki where she largely just kind of complains about being stuck on Kyoshi and acts like a massive bitch toward him for seemingly no reason (since they completely removed his sexism and thus his entire arc in that episode) but then they kiss anyway.

Aang gets shit on by the people of Kyoshi and then blasted by Kyoshi herself for not being determined enough in his quest and not understanding what it means to be the Avatar (even though in this version of events Aang never ran away from the Southern Air Temple he was just out for a lil fly to cool his head and got yeeted by the storm, and the entire reason he came to Kyoshi in the first place is so he could learn more about being the Avatar).

Katara is, uh, there and plays around with the waterbending scroll Gran Gran apparently had the entire time (so I guess we’re not covering The Waterbending Scroll in this show, aka one of Katara’s early defining character episodes).

None of them develop because they weren’t given any flaws to begin with. There’s nothing for them to overcome. The problems they overcame in the original episodes were taken out from the very start, which means they have nowhere to actually go.

And that might be fine if this wasn’t an Avatar the Last Airbender adaptation. You know, the show that is so well known for its character development that it’s often cited as one of the best examples of a redemption arc in fiction? That Avatar the Last Airbender show? Yeah…

Another problem, and I really can’t overlook this, is the atrocious script this show has. It feels like the characters spend 90% of their talking time either delivering bland exposition that was usually just shown to us in the original show, or monologuing about something. It feels like the writers had no confidence in their audience to actually follow what was happening or understand the themes, which is… embarrassing. This show is clearly not made for children at all based on the levels of violence depicted, and it’s not a great sign when the show made for ten year olds has more faith in its audience's intelligence than this one.

And really, I get that you’re probably going to have to combine episodes and cut out some things to fit a 20 episode season into an 8 episode season, but some of the choices for episodes they combined is just bizarre. Who on earth decided it would be a good idea to combine Jet, The King of Omashu, and The Northern Air Temple into one episode?

The original Jet is largely a Sokka-centric episode, dealing with his own insecurity as well as the group’s lack of confidence in him and his abilities. Yet Katara is almost exclusively the one interacting with the Jet plotline in the Netflix adaptation, and all of Sokka’s best moments from that episode are lost. Instead he spends most of this episode hanging out with Teo’s dad and establishing his interest in engineering (and weirdly shitting on Hakoda for some reason in the process?) which could have been established in an episode which shares a less Sokka-important plotline.

The Northern Air Temple is about Aang reconciling his conflicted feelings about refugees moving into a place that once belonged to his people, changing things, and adopting/adapting some of the Air nomad’s culture (such as the gliders). He ultimately comes to the conclusion that the Air Nomads are gone, but he’s happy new people have come along and carry their spirit. Because this episode takes place in Omashu in the Netflix adaptation, there is absolutely none of that conflict or growth over others using the space which used to belong to his people.

The King of Omashu is just a sweet, Aang-centric episode where he realizes he still has friends in the world, and establishes Omashu and Bumi for the world/later seasons. Bumi isn’t even in episode 3 of the Netflix adaptation physically until the end, and when he’s mentioned he basically gets shit on, treated as completely incompetent, and almost murdered by Jet. Though from what I gather based on the episode blurbs the substance of The King of Omashu is probably contained more in Episode 4, so we’ll see if my opinion changes after episode 4.

The act of combining episodes is not the problem. It’s the episodes they’ve chosen to combine. What they’ve done so far does not in any way take advantage of what the original show gave them to work with.

For example, Why not instead combine the Southern Air Temple, The Storm, and The Northern Air temple? All three episodes connect with the theme of Aang dealing with his loss. Just move Teo and his father to the Southern Air Temple instead of the northern one and keep their plotline the same. In the process Aang can walk the run down buildings and learn more about what happened, and at some point he can find Gyatso’s body and there can be flashbacks to him leaving the Southern Temple and he can talk about how guilty he feels.

(While I’m at it I think they could have more smoothly combined Jet with The Waterbending Scroll. Katara can steal the scroll and as they’re escaping they can run into the merry band of freedom fighters who hide them. Katara practices with the scroll while Jet encourages her which is part of why she takes such a liking to him, and Sokka has his arc with Jet. Maybe Jet could even dangle the prospect of getting rid of the pirates chasing them along with the town to try and bait Sokka to his side/convince him by exploiting his protective instinct, but Sokka still refuses.)

Basically, I wish they’d combined the episodes more on the basis of their interconnected themes rather than… whatever it is they were trying to do here.

Anyway I think that’s the big thrust of my criticisms of the show. Now I’m just going to do random miscellaneous complaining about character changes.

First, Aang is such a bland pile of nothing, and despite the writers claiming he’s more determined and a go-getter he has never, not ONCE stopped getting pushed around in the plot.

He doesn’t intentionally leave the Air Nomads of his own volition, he just happened to be out for a little fly to clear his head when a storm oopsied him into the plot. He gets bullied by Kyoshi for like four minutes straight into doing the thing he was already doing (going to the Northern Water Tribe) because she psychically knows that the Fire Nation is going to attack them later, not because he actually… y’know… wants to learn waterbending/wants to find Katara a teacher.

2) Sokka gives sociopathy with the delivery of some of these lines. The jokes are REALLY hit or miss and the acting is more miss than hit in this show (goes for everyone tbh, not even just the kids). I already complained about them removing his sexism and I can confirm the sexism is indeed gone. He does at least maintain his role in the comic relief department, but I can’t say I’m that thrilled they kept the literal least interesting part of his personality.

3) Katara is genuinely one of my favorite characters in media ever. Seriously I could probably make a whole other post about how much I love her, and I am so disappointed by what a bland ball of nothing she is so far. She has none of her edge.

You’ll notice that they’ve so far covered The Boy in the Iceberg, The Avatar Returns, The Southern Air Temple, The Warriors of Kyoshi, The King of Omashu, The Winter Solstice (1 and 2), Jet, The Northern Air Temple, and if I am being EXTREMELY generous The Waterbending Scroll (as in, there is technically a waterbending scroll and Katara does now have possession of it).

None of which are what I would consider Katara-centric character development episodes, and the moments she does have in those episodes appear to be mostly cut out or overlaid with bizarre PTSD flashback nightmare fuel. I’m not trying to imply that the show won’t get better about her, but I’m not a huge fan of having a lot of her moments stripped out and her characterization reduced to “yeah she’s traumatized”. Honestly depending on how the rest of this season goes you might have to deal with a big long ramble just like this on just Katara. Katara Alone, if you will.

4) I have no idea what’s even going on with Zuko. They covered Aang’s half of The Storm in pretty gruesome detail but completely neglected Zuko’s entire half of that episode. Thus far he feels like he’s getting pushed around by the plot just as much as Aang. And he has to share villain screentime with Ozai and Azula for whatever reason. Also, they wussed out on that scar.

Iroh is in a similar boat to Zuko. It just feels like the Netflix adaptation doesn’t have nearly as much interest in developing Zuko and Iroh as the original show did. Which is really disappointing. One of the things that made Zuko’s redemption so good was because he and Iroh were such a presence in the show from the very beginning. They very frequently, even if they’re not directly interacting with the Gaang, dominate the episode B-plot. His redemption simply does not work if you don’t have that.

5) Zhao is such a dweeb. A dork. A weenie. I don’t even understand why they made this change to him. In the original show he’s ruthlessly effective and ambitious to a fault. He’s an antagonist not just to Aang, but to Zuko as well. Aang is his meal ticket to even greater acclaim and Zuko is a banished princeling who has nothing of value to offer him. He has it made in the Fire Nation and he’s not afraid to flex his power or show it. He is also hot headed and rash, which gets him into trouble on more than one occasion and ultimately probably leads to his downfall. He is not some weenie hut junior loser who slides into the Fire Lord’s DMs while trying to play nice and team up with his banished prince son after failing his Commander Exams™ three times.

6) I’m sensing an Ozai woobie arc with that “don’t pretend to know anything about loss” line he said to those guys trying to assassinate him and I swear to god if they try to give him an uwu sad backstory and/or try to pretend like he gives a shit about his wife or either of his kids I am not only not watching the rest of this trainwreck, I’m never paying Netflix money for anything ever again. Don’t even start with me on that shit.

[thebluemallet]

A look at my first thoughts on the trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender

IT'S SOZIN'S COMET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are we going to see the attacks on the Air Temples???

That iceberg already looks better than the one from the movie that shall not be named. Just that one shot of the iceberg and I'm fucking sold on the art direction of this show.

SPOT ON casting for Katara as far as looks go. She even has the same face shape.

The parkas on both Sokka and Katara look amazing. Again, much better than what they had in the movie that shall not be named. I love the details in the designs on them.

THEY HAVE OMASHU! O-MA-SHU! WE'RE GETTING OMASHU!

Zuko has a SCAR. He has an actual SCAR. Not just something that looks kind of like a rash.

I've only had Netflix Uncle Iroh for a day and half. But if anything happens to him, I will hurt everyone in this room and then myself.

The Fire Nation throne room looks SICK with the flames cropping up.

It's the Fire Lord! I wondered if we would see him or not. But keeping him in shadows for two seasons won't work as well in a live-action show so I'm fine with it.

(Daniel Dae Kim voiced an Earth Kingdom General in the original series and now he's the Fire Lord!)

SUKI!!!

Honestly, showing Suki and the Kyoshi warriors in the trailer felt like a direct message from the show to fans of the original series that said, "Yes, they will be included and not cut out from the final product, unlike that other project."

Seriously, for those who don't remember, people in 2010 were getting their hopes up that the movie that shall not be named would be a) good despite the whitewashing and b) still include the Kyoshi warriors despite them not being in the trailers.

IT'S THE CRESCENT ISLAND WITH THE TEMPLE WITH THE FIRE SAGES WHERE AANG WILL GET TO TALK TO ROKU! HOLY SHIT!

Okay, I'll admit it. I may have gotten a little choked up when I first saw Aang flying through with his staff.

AANG!!!!!!!! Looking like a badass emerging from the mist.

THE MUSIC! THE MUSIC!

That shot of Aang in the burned forest looks exactly like the shot in the original show! Holy shit!

AGNI KAI!!! I have conflicting emotions about this! I'm excited it's in here but I'm not ready to see Zuko in that much pain.

ZUKO AND IROH FIGHTING TOGETHER!!!! Is this when Iroh got captured by the Earth Kingdom???

Also the animation on the firebending looks incredible and it looks reminiscent of the martial arts style they used for firebending in the show.

AZULA!

It looks like the fire is glowing in her eyes.

Sokka and Katara in the Southern Air Temple maybe?

AND CAN WE JUST APPRECIATE THAT SOKKA AND KATARA BOTH HAVE THE SAME NECKLACES THEY HAD IN THE ORIGINAL SHOW?!!!!!

The tattoos GLOW.

Is this Zuko attacking Kyoshi Island?!

The whole trailer I was chanting Show me Appa! Show me Appa!

AND I TEARED UP WHEN THEY FINALLY SHOWED APPA!

AND THAT MUSIC SWELL!!!! AHHHHH!

I'VE ONLY HAD NETFLIX APPA AND MOMO FOR A DAY AND A HALF. BUT IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO THEM, I WILL HURT EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM AND THEN MYSELF!

WATER, EARTH, FIRE, AIR!

Oh, but I'm probably gonna have to wait a while before I get to see this, right?

FEBRUARY 22ND?! THAT'S REALLY NOT THAT LONG! I WAS EXPECTING TO HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER SIX MONTHS!

So yeah, I'm excited for this.

Also, not in the trailer, but the Cabbage Merchant is supposed to be in the show.

[theskysungqueen]

Netflix Avatar writers if you're reading these here's some things you might want (need) to improve on in the next two seasons!

The dialogue. Please just use dialogue from the original show or improve on yours 'cause the audience does not need to be reminded of what the characters are going through with EVERY line they have, subtlety is key and some of the dialogue actually works! Some. Most of it does the characters a disservice

speaking of characters, you have the hang of Zuko and Iroh and Aang just needs to be more avoidant, but Sokka could benefit from allowing Ian to joke around and act like himself, Kiawentiio as Katara as well. Maybe direct them to be more expressive in their facials, contort their expressions more and move their eyebrows (I notice this is a thing in both Gordon and Dallas' acting styles and it's actually an effective way to translate facials from the cartoon)

Let Katara be both motherly and petty!!! soft introvert Katara is cute but like someone said, her anger is so central to her character and for the eventual Southern Raiders arc to work, she needs to BE angry and passionate! WRITE her that way!

Avoid another mishmash of storylines like the Omashu/Mechanist/Jet arc and the Hei Bai/Roku/Blue Spirit arc, it drags on too long. Unless it can be worked into a more coherent and well paced storyline, please, don't

fix your depiction of the spirit world please don't make it like Korra where everything is bright and vivid, Aang's Spirit World reflected the state of the world in the middle of war and that's why everything was under saturated and murky

Make Azula calmer and sneakier, not openly expressive. Again, this isn't the actor's fault, it's how she's written!

Less exposition more visuals

and that's about it unless people have things to add, thank you

[strang3lov3]

friend omg I had to run here to tell you: did you see the devastation that is the Watcher’s new business decision of leaving YouTube and starting a subscription service. Couldn’t even watch the vid the comment section said it all. Crying

Watcher reading all of the YouTube comments lol

I have mixed feelings. I read an article from Variety that said they’ll be leaving their old content up on YouTube, which is good news and Ryan corroborated this in a tweet. But I am still disappointed in this decision and I think they’re overestimating how many fans will move over to Watcher and watch content there. I mean I will, I already bought a subscription because I am such a slut for their content. I am who I am. But I already have a fucking bone to pick with the website, WHERE ARE THE FUCKING SUBTITLES?! Are we gonna get a Roku app?? I dunno! Already it’s not worth the 6 fucking dollars!!! And god do I think it was bold of them to say that their subscription is affordable for everyone. Sure, it’s not premium Netflix prices but that doesn’t make it affordable. What an out of touch thing to say. When it comes to choosing between groceries and Watcher content, most people are choosing groceries. Watcher is just lucky I am bad with my money lol

Also, the balls on these guys to do a fucking countdown on their instagram for this 💀

I do think YouTube is absolutely to blame here - it’s becoming a worse place for viewers and content creators alike and I completely understand wanting to move away from that to create better content. But…this feels like a cash grab and I don’t think it’s gonna work out for them. I don’t think it’s worked out well for a lot of YouTube channels that have gone down a similar path but I’m not in the know about that.

I mean, maybe it’s comparing apples to oranges but look at Rhett and Link - they’re thriving on YouTube and have been for like 15 years! They have extra content behind paywalls for their most dedicated fans, I don’t see why Watcher couldn’t have done something like that.

[articulately-composed]

Thoughts on the ATLA live action

I may not post about it a ton, but ATLA was what brought me into fandom culture over a decade ago, so as you may assume, I have some Thoughts about the live action netflix series. Now, I'm gonna preface this by saying I didn't hate it. Surprisingly enough. I came into it thinking the whole series was gonna be a hate watch, but they actually did some interesting stuff with it.

Let's start with the positives.

Sokka - When I heard that they were removing Sokka's sexism, I thought his character was doomed. That's so much of his season 1 arc, I had no idea what was gonna be left. Turns out, they didn't take away his preoccupation with being a manly warrior, they just made it less overt, and honestly, that brand of "girls suck!" sexism that exists to get refuted in early 2000s kids tv probably would have sounded out of place and preachy in a 2024 show geared towards adults. In the end, Sokka felt like one of the most fleshed out characters. His original arc was left in tact, with the bonus of him being a simpy bottom for Suki in a way that kinda fits.

Zuko - I really liked that they added some extra backstory between Zuko and Iroh sooner. The bit with the funeral was honestly really nice. I saw some critiques saying that zuko was made out to be sympathetic far too soon, but honestly, I think it worked. The show is so well known that I don't know if gaining sympathy for zuko later on would have the same effect as it did 20 years ago. I thought the Zuko and Iroh moments really helped solidify their bond on Zuko's part, and tbh, that's gonna make his season 2 betrayal that much stronger (if they pull it off well). I also like the stuff they added with Zuko's journal. Of course he's a fuckin nerd who takes detailed notes with sketches about the stuff he's researching. If Zuko existed irl he'd have a bullet journal youtube channel.

The structure - I hate that no tv series gets more than 8 episodes anymore. it's ruined so much when it comes to pacing in literally everything. That being said, I like what they did when it comes to combining plots. It really made the show feel like it's own thing and not a 1-to-1 adaptation. They stuck Jet and the Mechanist in Omashu, and it worked. Roku's temple and The Blue Spirit were the same episode. Obviously, there was a lot of picking and choosing when it came to what plot points they kept and what they scrapped, and it did do a number on some of the characters' development, but the episodes they chose to keep were important ones, and they managed to weave them together surprisingly well.

And now, the negatives...

Episode 1 - The setup is dreadful. The show starts with a solid 20 minutes of backstory. Before you even meet Sokka and Katara, you know literally all the details about the air nomad genocide. And because they show you the entire genocide on screen before Aang is released from the iceberg, you don't get the experience of having it revealed to you as Aang is experiencing learning about it. His avatar state reaction to seeing Monk Gyatso's corpse just doesn't feel warranted when there's not that slow buildup to finding out about the war and Aang's denial of the whole thing. Episode 1 in general felt messy, rushed, and missing a whole lot of vital character growth.

Aang - Honestly, Aang's character in general felt flat. He gives me ipad kid vibes. He feels like a prodigy kid who just doesn't care, instead of a fun-loving goofball who 's scared of responsibility. He makes so many quips about not paying attention to the monks or falling asleep during meditations, and while it's not like he was super studious in the original, the thing he's doing to avoid studying is goofing around. Playing pranks with Monk Gyatso instead of paying attention to the monks. goofing off in a river with Sokka instead of learning waterbending. He's so un-silly in the live action and it's to his detriment. I guess this is just a part of the 8-episode curse, but because those filler moments have to be erased, you really lose out on all of Aang's stupid kid shenanigans.

Katara - Katara fell so damn flat, which is such a tragedy. I saw someone else on here talking about how the lack of Aang helping her be a kid again in episode 1 took away a lot from her, and they are totally right! Specifically, it took a ton away from the bond the two of them have. Really, there's no reason why Katara should have traveled with Aang in the first place. She didn't bond with him over riding animals, or help him understand what happened in the last hundred years (Gran Gran takes care of all that exposition...), and they don't even head towards the northern water tribe to find a waterbending master until after Kyoshi Island, so that's not why she chose to come either. Katara is also missing her whole "had to become the mom after her mom died" schtick. Not that she should be reduced to group mom, but that's still a part of her original character. She got plenty of backstory regarding her mom, but it was mostly grief. There was a little sprinkling of her sense of justice in there, but that's another one of those "victim of the 8-episode curse" things. So much of her character got lost when the filler was cut that there's not that much left over.

The spirit world - I know I just said I liked what they did combining episodes together, but honestly I think they tried to do too much with the spirit world episode. They use the Hei Bai episode to get into the spirit world, but the whole burned forest plot from the original is pretty much scrapped for a Koh plot, which combines the original Koh plot with the fog of lost souls from Korra, and the mother of faces from the sequel comics? The spirit world episode ties to Roku, like in the original, but Roku barely does anything outside of info only important to that episode. Out of all the avatars Aang contacts, Roku is the least relevant. Kuruk is more relevant than Roku. The bit with Monk Gyatso was sweet, but it did feel like one more thing on top of an already cluttered episode. Also, I don't love that Yue was a fox in the spirit world, it felt kinda out of left field. I didn't love what they did with Yue and Sokka in general, their whole vibe felt rushed.

Final thoughts, obviously it wasn't incredible. It's a show that doesn't really need or want to exist. They stuffed the first season of a cartoon with notoriously thorough writing into 8 episodes. But I didn't hate it. Honestly, I was pretty entertained. I fully intend on seeing season 2. I want to see what they're gonna do with Azula moving forward, how they're gonna handle Toph, and what the fuck they meant by "there actually is no war in ba sing se" bc clearly there was a fucking war in ba sing se, Iroh nearly gets crushed by a boulder by a vengeful soldier over it. I came into this with rock bottom expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised

[fellow-nerd]

Before I dive into the abyss of everyone else's thoughts on the new avatar series, let me start by saying it wasn't THAT bad.

Don't get me wrong they've definitely changed a lot and it feels strange to watch after living off the original for literally my whole life.

But there was oddly enough, a lot of things I did like.

I will say that the first episode was absolute painful to watch. I despise the fact that they made kyoshi and gran gran give the opening monologue. Like that is Kataras role. It's our first introduction to her and it sets her character up, shes hopeful for the future, she's spent time learning the past, but most importantly she believes whole heartedly in Aang.

I'm not sure why there's so much kyoshi going on. I know she's really popular but it feels off to me. I think they made that change since this show is way more heavily focused on it be A WAR. rather than a feel good action adventure. In the og, roku serves to tell Aang why the war happened and gently guides him along. This works because Aang is a gentle kid, let me say it again, A KID. And everyone is so aware of this in the original. There's no forced heavy dialougue or such a deep sense of solemness, Aang is a kid and he wants to have and slowly learns to take on more responsibility, it a huge part of his arc that I feel is integral to the show. It's not just "oh well time to win this war, time to fight" it takes time and this show is not doing that.

I'm also concerned about the frontloading of all the backstory for Sozin, Iroh, and Aang. We don't learn of these thing until farther in the series for a reason. It's built up to to make it feel more rewarding for the audience. U cant just go well here u go have fun. It's gonna bite them later on when they have to think of something else to fill that narrative gap, and knowing netflix it probably won't go well.

That being said, however, i did find myself really enjoying the interactions between Aang and Gyatso and Iroh and Zuko in the flashbacks. It's something new and it's probably the most in character things we've seen so far.

BTW I'm only half way through so I'll make more updates when I finish.

Overall, I feel like there's a lot this show is doing right but a lot that is definitely gonna drag it down. No one asked for this show. The funding should've gone towards new animated projects, but it's here anyways and hopefully it doesn't go crazy downhill in the later half or I'll be taking back all the good things I just said.

[juanabaloo]

March 10, 2023

Scream 6 was released in theaters in the US. This marked the last installment in the franchise, which started with Scream in 1996.

(The Scream franchise is now pronounced dead. Time of death: November 21, 2023. The main cause of death is the heinous firing of Melissa Barrera for speaking about the genocide in Palestine, and falsely claiming she made anti-Semitic comments.)

THE SCREAM FRANCHISE IS OVER!

MOVIE SPOILER: Ignoring the lack of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), the franchise ended satisfyingly. It concluded with the "Core Four" all safe from Ghostface.

Melissa Barrera played Sam Carpenter, with Jenna Ortega playing her sister Tara. The two Latinas starred in Scream 5 and Scream 6. Goodbye Sam Carpenter, you were fucking awesome. So glad you get to live a normal life now, free from Ghostface.

In addition to her Mexican telenovela work, Melissa is well known for her leading role in the TV series Vida and the movie In the Heights. Other recent projects for Melissa include All the World is Sleeping, Keep Breathing, Carmen, and Bed Rest.

As of November 2023, in the USA: Vida - Roku, various In the Heights - HBO Max All the World is Sleeping - Starz, various Keep Breathing - Netflix Carmen - Freevee Bed Rest - Tubi

(She has way more work than that but you get the idea.)

[natlacentral]

Avatar: The Last Airbender showrunner breaks down biggest remixes and Koi-zilla

Albert Kim, showrunner of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender, knew his new series would be subject to scrutiny, given the diehard fans who would no doubt pick apart every creative choice in what he calls more of a remix than a strict adaptation of Nickelodeon's beloved animated classic. Now that the show is finally out in the world after years of development, he welcomes it.

"It's also very nice to have so many people so invested and passionate about the story. I'd much rather have that than be ignored," Kim tells EW. "So being able to be in the forefront of something like that is pretty exciting. It can't please everyone, and as long as you understand that it's all fair game, I'm happy that fans are having debates and discussing these topics. I just want to wait for them to do it after seeing the show. And then I'm really excited to see what they talk about and what they like and don't like."

On that note, now that Avatar: The Last Airbender has premiered on Netflix, Kim breaks down some of the biggest live-action remixes.

The cost of Koi-zilla

Kim knew going into season 1 that they were going to pull off Koi-zilla — the moment when Aang (Gordon Cormier) channels the Ocean Spirit at the Northern Water Tribe and transforms into a giant koi creature made entirely of water. "It's funny to me that some fans out there thought we weren't going to do Koi-zilla," Kim says. "How can you tell the story without the Ocean Spirit creature?" But he notes it was both a practical and financial challenge.

"I knew we were going to do that ending, so we planned for that from the start of the season," he explains. "We planned on the sets that we were going to build, the VFX money that needed to be invested in that, the design of the creature, and making sure all the storylines organically led to that moment."

It did mean that he had to pick and choose what else he could pull off on the show with the remaining resources. "The Air Temple episode has an amazing battle in it, and I'm sure fans are going to go like, 'Why didn't you do that?' I wish I could, but it was going to be that or the Koi-zilla finale. So I had to make my choice there," he says.

Roku's Shrine was another example. "I love the sequence in original where they figured out how to crack the door," Kim recalls. "But when we got to that episode, we just didn't have the resources, frankly, both logistically and financially to be able to afford that on top of everything else we were doing in that episode."

Sorry, Flopsie

Among the Easter eggs in Avatar: The Last Airbender are two statues that appear in the background of King Bumi's (Utkarsh Ambudkar) castle in Omashu. They appear in the likeness of Flopsie, who was Bumi's pet goat gorilla in the animated show. "We never tried to make Flopsie," Kim says. "Flopsie is not really a character. He's a pet, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice to not have Flopsie."

Bumi's arc marks one of the bigger story remixes in the live-action version. The original saw the Earth Kingdom ruler put Aang through a series of tests, while keeping his true identity as his childhood friend under wraps as part of these trials. That information is revealed up front.

"We talked about it a lot in the writers' room, but at the same time, it didn't work for a number of reasons," Kim explains. "Bumi's point in the animated series is to show that the Avatar has to essentially face the unexpected, which we also get across in our episode, too. But what was more interesting to me were what was going on with the characters. Bumi is a character who was deeply wounded. He's hurt by the fact that his friend Aang wasn't there in his time of need. Aang, on the other hand, is burdened by the guilt that he wasn't there for his friend who needed him. That, to me, was much more interesting than the specific set of challenges that he had to go through. Bringing those characters to an emotional head was where we started from and then we built using the elements of the original story."

Spirits

The writers' room mapped out the season in blocks of two episodes: 1 and 2, the Omashu arc of 3 and 4, and the Northern Water Tribe setting of 7 and 8. That left 5 and 6 to kick off the Spirit World arc, except there were multiple re-weavings that ended up happening as a result.

Though initially more standalone in the animated original, the live-action series combines the storylines for Hei Bai, Koh, Roku's Shrine, and the Blue Spirit all into one overarching plot. Investigating the disappearing Earth Kingdom villagers leads the Aang gang to the Spirit World, where Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) become trapped by the face stealer known as Koh (George Takei)... which then sends him to speak with Avatar Roku (C.S. Lee) at his temple in the Fire Nation for guidance...which then gets him captured by June (Arden Cho) and taken into Commander Zhao's (Ken Leung) custody...which then prompts Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) to free the Avatar under the guise of the Blue Spirit.

"It was challenging, but it wasn't any more so than the rest of the season," Kim says. "Because we knew we were going to get to the point where we saw the Agni Kai, there was a lot going on to set that up." The original series didn't fully show the proceeding events following the Agni Kai, the Fire Nation duel that saw Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) scar and exile Zuko from the kingdom, but the writers used those moments to further beef up Zuko's backstory.

"Also, that's the one episode in the season where essentially Sokka and Katara are not in it. So it became a big Aang and Zuko story," Kim continues. "When you looked at it that way, that meant including the Blue Spirit and then also including the Agni Kai and some new scenes like the one post Agni Kai when Ozai goes to Zuko and banishes him. So it's a little bit of maybe putting the puzzle pieces together and seeing where they all fall. Once you do that, certain things just logically fall into place."

Past lives

Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender plays more with the mythology than the original's freshman season did. Visiting each of the past Avatar's temples allows Aang to commune with them, and even allow them to take over his body, as in the case of Avatar Kyoshi. As a result, we get to meet both Kyoshi and Avatar Kuruk in addition to Avatar Roku much earlier in the timeline.

Kim says he spoke with original Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko before they departed the live-action project over unresolvable creative differences. But the writers' room also benefited from all the supplemental Avatar materials that were released in the past years, including the companion novels and comic books.

"A lot of that stuff about those Avatars came from the Kyoshi novels," he says. "One of the Kyoshi novels talks a lot about Avatar Kuruk, same with the character of Kyoshi. The Avatars were useful characters throughout the season because they were able to confront Aang and voice his various conflicts, both as incarnations of himself and as characters on their own. One of the things you see is in episode 2 when he first talks to Kyoshi. We drew upon elements of what happens when he meets Roku in the original series and gave it to Koshi because we needed that element early in our series, to see the power of the Avatar."

A topic he explored with DiMartino and Konietzko was why the Avatar is the only one who can bring balance to the world. "'He can master all four elements, but isn't that the same as having four different benders?' 'No, he's also got the Avatar State.' 'Well, what does that mean?' So in episode 2, we see the power of the Avatar," he says.

Cracking Sokka

Of all the characters translated to live action, Kim says Sokka was "a little less fleshed out" than the others.

"Katara had the trauma of her mother's death, which is also Sokka's mother, but you didn't see too much evidence of that with Sokka," Kim explains of the adaptation process. "Zuko obviously has the story with his father and the Agni Kai, and Aang has the burden of being the Avatar. Sokka is a little bit more of a blank canvas in that regard, so we built in more into his backstory, which is in the original, it's just a little subtler."

The writers decided to lean more into the absence of Sokka's father and the pressures of having to lead the Southern Water Tribe at such a young age, as well as his struggles being the only non-bender of Team Avatar. "What does that mean for a human being when everyone around you has these superpowers and you don't?" Kim says. "It's all there in the original, we just drew it to the fore a little more."

It also blended easily into the Princess Yue (Amber Midthunder) arc later on. "She's able to see through all of his bluster and all of his attempts at comedy, and sees this insecurity," Kim adds. "So that was great to play with."

The 41st Division

A change to the original story Kim is most proud of is the 41st Division of the Fire Nation's military. In the Netflix series, the troupe was meant to be sacrificial lambs to distract enemy forces, but Zuko urges his father to appoint them as his crew in exile. The reveal cements the soldiers' respect for the Fire Nation prince and becomes a mirror to the found family element of Team Avatar.

"It's a small change, but it is so impactful in its way because it really drives home the story of Zuko's arc," Kim says. "He cannot find the compassion and love that he wants from his father because what he sees as a weakness in himself is his compassion. Then he finds it in this family that he's built with his crew. The message of the whole series really is about the family we make for ourselves."

The hardest VFX shot

Oddly enough, Koi-zilla wasn't the most difficult visual effects sequence to pull off in Avatar: The Last Airbender; neither was the attack on the Southern Air Temple. That distinction falls to a rather small sequence involving water and an arrow.

In episode 3, Katara thwarts Jet's (Sebastian Amoruso) plot to assassinate the Mechanist (Danny Pudi) and King Bumi by hurling water at a flaming arrow. "That's one of the hardest waterbending shots in the show because it's just doing something that water really doesn't do," says Jabbar Raisani, an executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor on the show. "It's traveling a really long distance, it's going against gravity upwards, and we really struggled with it."

The VFX team experimented with the movement of liquid by throwing buckets of water in the air over and over until they had enough references they could pull from. "That was not literally put in, but that's the inspiration for how the water moves through space," Raisani adds.