#atla movie versus atla animated series

[totodiletears]

I haven't had Netflix for a while and I do not care enough to try other methods of watching it, but even as someone who didn't pay any attention to news about the ATLA remake before it released? Not surprised at all to see so many people not like it.

It's like... the original show is already really really good. There's no point in remaking it. People never think these things are improvements on the original. Nobody says, "oh boy I'm so glad they turned The Lion King into an even better movie by remaking it to look like real life instead of animation!"

Really, why "adapt" something that's already good into the same medium? Blah blah live action versus animation, they're still both TV shows. At least adapt it into a series of books (with actual EFFORT, not like those beginner-readers that don't capture much depth or those comics where every image is just a screenshot of the show or whatever), something that really is a different medium. Fuck, make a musical! At least make a movie or something. Similar to a TV show in terms of how it communicates to the audience, yes, but movies have some very different limitations compared to TV shows so I say it still counts as a different medium. It's a real shame they never made an Avatar movie back in the day, huh? Bet it would have been real popular back then.

[orihime-maychan]

I gave the ATLA live action movie “The Last Airbender” one more shot...

Four hours ago, I happen to catch the Avatar: The Last Airbender live action movie on the telly, and before I cringed out even thinking about it, I said to myself:

“It’s been almost 10 years, what could possibly make me cringe anymore than what it was?”

So... I watched it. I was supposed to go to sleep because I had a bad case of food poisoning (again) but then my tummy got all better so.. Why not. And I was surprised for the next 1 hour 30 minutes.

OK, so to all ATLA-TLOK fans out there, before you bash me into little pieces for even mentioning this live action movie, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT FIRST!

I am not posting this to bash or to rave about anything, I am just posting this to bring out my thoughts on this movie about 10 years after it was made/after I watched it for the first time (under the assumption that my opinions are valid and welcomed in this site).

I wanted to put this “late” review and commentary so I could have a comparison point once the ATLA series goes live in Netflix next year, among other things.

I believe I may have been too attached to the animated series way back then to have made a somewhat partial and unbiased review to put it down completely as trash.

And lastly,

In relation to the previous point, I will take into account a possible viewpoint from non-ATLA fans who just wanted to while away their time by watching a movie which they knew nothing about.

I’m not gonna put any jumps/breaks/keep reading cuts on this post because it doesn’t show up on mobile anyway, and also because some people on desktop are too lazy to click it so.. I’ll just make this a long-ass post and hopefully my PC can survive the long-ass ness x_x So if you started reading this well.. It’s on you. =P

I will be doing the commentaries based on the following:

How the story flow compares to the original ATLA series

Character comparisons between the series (especially KEY characters)

Rendering of the effects

If I was a bystander who watched it for the sake of watching (i.e. if I wasn’t an ATLA fan), how would I feel about it?

If I remember to do so, I’ll probably make an overall comment on the whole thing based on what I said and add some stuff I may have forgotten to add. Also, since the Airbender movie is just for Book 1: Water, well it’s the only thing I’ll comment on. Again, be warned, this will be a long, long, long-ass post.

Live Movie vs Book 1 Series

Well, let’s be honest here, even the Ember Island Players took a very long time to showcase just Book 1 in their own version, so of course Nick and Paramount had to cut everything to fit into 1 1/2 hours of movie time, and that would cut out more exciting and pivotal scenes from even getting shown. I mean, it’s not like they had that much budget to turn the whole thing into something as long as one movie from LOTR or even Hogwarts movies. A lot of the magical bending stuff were sorta uhm.. not there? Also, there were so much leaps and stuff just to visit all of the Air Nomad Temples, that was basically what Aang, Katara and Sokka were doing most of the time, aside from learning how to bend, escaping Zuko and Co., as well as inciting rebellion within the Earth Kingdom under the Fire Nation domain. And also, I felt the whole thing wasn’t even meant to be a big production, unless I just don’t watch enough movies to recognize anybody. Seriously, the only actors I recognized in the live action were Jackson Rathbone and Dev Patel, I honestly don’t know everybody else (sorry Yue, I find you lovely but I don’t know who you are T_T). So... You see where I’m going here?

So... Because of many constraints, the entire Book 1 was reduced into this plot:

Two Southern water tribe siblings found a kid (and a huge fluffy beast) frozen in a ball of ice, which shot out a beam of light after breaking the ice ball. They brought the kid and the beast back home, in which they tried to get to know him better. But a foreign prince from beyond the wild seas took it upon to himself to bring back what he believed to be his target, The Avatar, by storming into the Southern water tribe village and taking the kid from the ice into custody. The two siblings’ grandmother later revealed that based on history and her own knowledge, the kid was the Avatar who was supposed to bring balance into the world, but disappeared in almost a century. So the two kids took it as their responsibility to rescue the ice ball kid under any circumstance, until he could turn the tides from the Fire Nation and bring balance and harmony into the world. Meanwhile, the kid from the ice was tested if he was indeed the Avatar, and unfortunately passed the test, now has an existential crisis and wanted to run away again, which he was able to do so with the help of the water tribe siblings. This leaves the captor, the former Prince of the Fire Nation even more pissed and determined to recapture his place and his position in his own country, as well as his father, the Fire Lord.

After visiting all of the Air Nomad Temples and realizing that he was the last bender of his kind, the Avatar underwent another existential crisis which he was only able to mitigate through meditation and reaching out to the spirit realm. This was further intensified by his need to master all of the remaining elements in order to serve his life purpose better because he ran away even before beginning his trainings, and he just couldn’t make stronger attacks or defenses just by bending air. So along with the two siblings, he traveled to the Northern Water tribes in order to learn water bending from the master. During the course of this travel, he met with the former Fire Prince and fought with him multiple times, he was kidnapped by another Fire Nation official after being lured by an Earth Kingdom citizen (and was actually set free by a ninja who later turned out to be the former Fire Prince), and he kept getting blocks from unlocking his full water bending potential. Only by entering the spirit realm and chatting with a dragon spirit was the Avatar able to keep himself calm despite the stuff happening around him.

After staying at the Northern water tribe’s place and learning water bending for quite sometime, the time for war against the Fire Nation came. However, despite preparations, the water benders were outnumbered and overpowered by the fire benders, which further worsened when one of the moon spirits got killed by the Fire Prince’s rival, thus removing the water bending abilites from those who could. However, ironic as it seems, another Fire nation member knows how to undo the damage that was done, and once the sacrifice was done, the water-benders were back in action. So much so, that even the Avatar was able to chase away the Fire Nation’s armada of ships away. After realizing that he was indeed, needed to restore the imbalance brought upon by his disappearance, the Avatar took his original responsibility to heart by bowing back to all of those who bowed down to him.

That was basically the entire content if focused only on Aang’s development. If you’d ask me, an hour and a half won’t be enough to bring to light all the wonders and charms of the original series, you might need like a three-hour trilogy series just to show each character’s full strengths and weaknesses. So even if a lot of the nice stuff in the series had to be cut out, I’d say that whatever was used in the movie was pretty much enough to show a proper plot to keep track of.

Basically, it all boils down to this:

The production team (or whatever governing body had to make the decisions regarding how the whole thing had to be made) had to take into consideration their target audiences, the production cost, and how long the whole movie must be in order to maximize whatever resources they had. If I was to base my opinion on such things, then I say that the movie’s storyline is overall OK.

Movie vs Series... Characterwise

Well, to make this long-ass commentary a bit shorter, I’ll just make a generalized comparison because for a short movie, there is obviously not enough time to build each character up so it makes for seemingly-flat characters. 

First of these is the fact that despite filling in some backstories for most of the characters, their traits seem to feel a bit wanting. Like there’s something missing. If you’d ask me, the thing that’s missing is whether or not they are capable of change. Some characters are like that, you see them move for the first 5-10 minutes and you’ll know whether or not the character has some potential for growth and change, not necessarily for the better but just some overall change from point A to B. We see this in the ATLA series because there is so much time spent on that, and I think that’s what makes everyone in there so endearing. Heck, even Azula has some fans because at least, at some point she had some sort of character change. However, based on my experience, that’s not easily done because in order for a character to enter change, a lot of events, introspections, expressions, and other internal and external influences must push the character to change. To make them strong or weak isn’t the point, but rather to make the character move out of their system and into another. This wasn’t  possible in the live action movie because again, time constraints. So whatever they were from the beginning just continued on until the end. NO dead-obvious growth observed, whatsoever. I felt like this was a disservice to ATLA fans because the characters portrayed on the screen were so different from the ones we got used to (hate) and even loved from the series:

Aang got reduced to a very confused and angry boy, who was originally written as a warm, friendly, and happy-go-lucky ball of charm. Also, if they wanted to do justice for however they shaped movie Aang, they should have made a whole lot more internal dialogue about his regrets and stuff, so angsty and angry Aang could have been justified better.

Katara got portrayed as a stiff girl, when in fact she was originally shown as hopeful, inquisitive and even smart, apart from her kindness and her nurturing and fun side. Also, as far as I recall, Katara in the series was already a very competent water bender, so why reduce her to a floppy one in the movie? It would have been better if she just was a wee better than what she was but still wanted to learn from Paku, to show children that there is always room for improvement (because again, this was originally intended for young viewers)

Sokka got reduced to a moody teen (Sorry Jackson), when in fact he was like Ronald Weasley: funny, resourceful, really tactical (friendly reminder that Ron won Wizard’s Chess, just saying) and is actually a comic relief. OK, so maybe there was a teeny, tiny part where Sokka was funny, but like 3% or lower. If you blink, you’ll miss it. I guess the part where he was brotherly to Katara was OK, just to redeem his movie self a bit.

Despite the vibe, movie Zuko wasn’t too angsty for my taste, he was just full of anger and revenge, so I don’t feel like it’s justifiable for him to be like that. Even if he actually got some screentime for some flashback, the character was just too angry and vengeful, not enough teen angst to give it depth. Sorry Dev, you did great but if you had an idea on who Zuko really was, you may probably gave him a better shape. Unless you already know how but just got cut off by the directors or something. I won’t know for sure. Also, we need more scars, like really deep, wrinkly, very horrifyingly discolored scars, not just the mild ones that I had to squint to see, because that’s surely a good source of Angst(c)

Uncle Iroh’s love for self-indulgence and his laid-back style wasn’t completely spot-on, I wanted a really chill yet wise vibe from him, but I guess the lack of dialogues between him and Zuko plus the fact that I only saw him drink tea TWICE, well, that’s just sad. I’m sure Uncle Iroh would’ve wanted more tea and cake times, and more feet-pampering. Plus more father-and-son scenes with Zuko because that’s what will eventually give way for angst and realizations but then again, I may be too opinionated on this one.

Ozai wasn’t as evil and as psychopathic as I expected him to be. He could have been more cruel, more harsh, more brash, more brutal, less passive, and less fluffy. General Zhao had more of that Ozai feel in him, maybe the two should have just exchanged places. Or better yet, it would have been better if they just made Ozai into a narcissistic manipulator, that might have worked. A charismatic manipulator, like Azula.

I think these are the only key characters worth mentioning in the movie since they’re pretty much pivotal in how that story arc moves, whether in the live action movie or in the series.

Movie Bending (Expectations vs Reality)

I had to say, the bending was actually OK, for me at least. The flamey-flamey shots and the water to ice bending were cool, the earth bending could have been better and faster but it’s pretty much decent, and the fact that air bending can be made more visible by putting air particulates like dust and mist around the whirlwinds so that the air movements can be seen is actually laudable. But then again, there wasn’t really that much bending to show since there were equally as much fight scenes as bending. It didn’t do that much justice though, since in the series bending elements were not limited to just fighting. Bending the elements could destroy or build structures, bending can heal or break people, and there is just so much complexity that elemental bending can show fans or non-fans or even beginning fans, which were not shown in the movie because of so many constraints. I’d dare say it was a disservice, but again, given the restrictions, I’d say that the bending shown in the movie was also, overall, given the circumstances, were pretty much OK.

If I wasn’t a Fan... (lol)

Well, if I wasn’t a fan, if I wasn’t aware (or even living) in the ATLA-TLOK universe, I would say that this movie had some entertainment value. Sure, maybe introducing the four nations could have needed some extra sentences at least, like the intro in the series, or maybe like show the map of the entire ATLA-TLOK world, talk about each part briefly, and maybe some bit on explaining what the elemental benders are. So I won’t be surprised at Katara making water balls or Aang making whirlwinds or Zuko kicking some fire out. I’d be confused as heck. Also, I feel that it would be even more amazing if they showed Appa flying a lot, and Aang’s interactions with Appa and Momo, because seriously, that would have at least made some of the kids think on the possibilities of having a flying bison or a flying lemur. Because showing a flying Appa but not seeing how that looks when you’re on the back of one kinda, I dunno, feels less magical. I only saw them fly once and swim once on water but that’s about it. At least show them parking Appa on one of the Air Nomad Temples or something. My point is:

Make the scenes a bit more engaging to the viewers. Strike their imagination or something. OR at the very least, make them awe at the possibilities of bending or whatever.

If the viewers came out of the cinemas feeling like they want a flying bison or they wanna bend fire or rocks or stuff, then at the very least you’ll be able to gauge if they got engaged with your movie or not. I don’t care what age group they would be, heck, I’m in my early 30′s and after more than a decade of being an ATLA fan, I still want my own dragon or flying bison. I won’t even mind if I get a letter from Hogwarts that I’m accepted as a witch, or if a parcel suddenly appears at my doorstep and something magical or mystical was there. Now if that isn’t engagement then I don’t know what is.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get that kind of feels from the movie, it just felt like something that would pass through me and won’t even consider remembering. I mean, the bending was all magical and stuff, but the characters weren’t able to pull me in. I wasn’t able to connect with them as much as I wanted to. They weren’t as much likeable or relatable as much as I expect them to be. They feel like a one-time deal, and I feel bad for them, actually. I mean, if you’re gonna write about a bunch of people, at least make them a bit relatable for the viewers. Give them a bit of depth, so that we won’t take them at face value. I mean, even the most boring person on earth has some depth, so at least, make the characters seem like they could actually feel things, because they aren’t stuck on something like a one-dimensional person. At the very least, make them DECENTLY human.

Overall Comments and some Final Stuff

I’m a bit sleepy but I’ll try to sum it all up and give my conclusions.

The Avatar the Last Airbender movie (seems to have) came short because of too many constraints:

Time constraints

Budget constraints

Character constraints

Creative constraints

However, despite such constraints the plot was actually enough to keep the movie going. There were also sufficient backstories for the main characters to use in order to push through with what they’re supposed to be doing. Sure, Aang only learned how to water bend but I think there was enough elemental bending in the movie to show the different styles of bending so that’s OK, I guess.

Overall, even if it sucked the first time around, after giving this movie another shot I guess it’s pretty much an OK movie to watch, to while away the time. I just hope that the Netflix version can be a WHOLE LOT BETTER at translating the animated series into live action. I know it’s a lot of expectations but at this rate, I could just hold on to properly-written and portrayed characters as well as smooth-flowing storylines, never minding whether or not the places or the bending are properly portrayed.

And with that, this review is done.

Will snooze and let this whole thing roll off my back.

[army-of-mai-lovers]

Comparing ATLA’s Jet to Cowboy Bebop’s Spike

(this is so late, but. Happy birthday @the-hot-zone​, hope you had an amazing day) 

In my opinion, Cowboy Bebop is one of the greatest shows ever created. It hits a lot of my personal favorite attributes in a TV show: cowboys, fantastic music, absolutely spectacular animation, really deep themes and characters with rich inner lives, worldbuilding that’s thought out. Simply put, it’s a masterpiece. 

I started watching Bebop this summer, at the height of the ATLA Renaissance, and the first thing I noticed about protagonist Spike Spiegel is that he looked a hell of a lot like Jet from ATLA. And it wasn’t just the looks either: like Jet, Spike is the leader of a ragtag group of misfits living on the fringes of society. Like Jet, Spike is a smooth talker. Like Jet, Spike is compassionate and cares for other people, and like Jet, the world has hardened Spike to the point where his virtues can still lead him down the wrong path. And while Jet isn’t named for Spike, there’s a character in Bebop named Jet (he sort of plays the right hand person role that Smellerbee plays for Jet in ATLA.) They’re not completely similar--Spike isn’t fighting for anybody’s liberation, whereas for Jet that’s a core aspect of his character--but it was enough to make me wonder about how Jet was designed and how much influence Bebop had on his character design and on ATLA as a whole, and whether looking at Spike can illuminate some of the conversations we’ve been having about Jet. 

A little about the inspiration and process of ATLA: Bryan and Michael were working on shows like Family Guy when they decided they wanted to make something more sincere and more cinematic. They were both really inspired by anime. Bryan said “Back in the late '90s I was getting pretty disillusioned with working on sitcoms -- then I saw Princess Mononoke and I was emboldened. My heart was so much closer to that kind of story, those kinds of characters and that type of tone. After that, Cowboy Bebop really inspired us in terms of being a great example of an epic series that had a wide breadth of tones. Then FLCL came along and rewrote the rules for everything, as far as I'm concerned!” I haven’t seen FLCL, I’ll admit, but having seen both Bebop and Princess Mononoke--yeah, I get that. Both are incredible pieces of art that, for me personally, make me want to push myself as an artist, and I cannot recommend both enough if you haven’t seen them already. 

So, Bryan and Michael decide they want to make something inspired by shows like Bebop and movies like Princess Mononoke, they get a pilot order from Nickelodeon and, as is custom at the time, they start reaching out to East Asian animation studios to help them with the animation. This video is a great source for how ATLA in particular interacted in this environment, but suffice to say that Bryan built a relationship with the studio that did a lot of work for ATLA, JM Animation, and gave them a lot of creative freedom in making the visuals of the show. This included designing Jet and the rest of the Freedom Fighters. 

[ID: An image of Jet from ATLA from the shoulders up against a sky background fading from blue at the top to white at the bottom. He had dark skin, shaggy black hair, black eyes, eyebrows turned way up, a smirk on his face, and some wheat in his mouth. He is wearing a red jacket with a gray popped collar. End ID] 

[ID: An image of Spike from Cowboy Bebop from the shoulders up against a sky blue background with trees behind him. He has shaggy dark brown hair that has a slight bit more curl in it than Jet’s, dark brown eyes, light skin, and a closed mouth smile on his face. He is wearing a blue suit with a yellow shirt that has a popped collar, and a skinny black tie/ End ID] 

So, let’s look at the character design. Both Spike and Jet have these long, angular faces, shaggy dark hair, long necks, broad shoulders, dark eyes, some popped collar element to their attire, etc. While both characters are pretty tall and lanky, Spike’s height is more immediately obvious than Jet’s--in fact, I wouldn’t think of Jet as a tall character had I not seen some fandom height comparisons. The most obvious and immediate differences between how the characters physically look are their clothes, which are very different (likely due to the setting--ATLA is set in a proto-industrial war-torn society and Jet in particular has had to scavenge his clothes from Fire Nation troops, while Bebop is a space epic set in the far future), the lack of mouth wheat for Spike, Spike’s incredibly normal looking eyebrows versus Jet’s adorable long division eyebrows, and, of course, their skin tones. Colorism is something that people bring up a lot when talking about Jet’s character, and I have to wonder why Jet, a character that was so clearly inspired by this light-skinned character who was morally ambiguous in Bebop, was made darker-skinned when explicitly coded as a “villain” in ATLA. 

In fact, colorism is a super important aspect of how Jet and Spike’s stories are told. To its credit, ATLA has two MCs (Sokka and Katara) with dark skin (not that the fanartists who whitewash them notice) while Bebop has just one (Ed). However, it’s important to note that Sokka and Katara are each portrayed in ways that Aang or other lighter-skinned characters in the show simply aren’t. For example, despite both characters being literal teenagers, they are sexualized within the text of the show. Another example of the colorism in ATLA is, of course, Jet, a Brown boy leading a resistance against oppressive colonialist imperialist forces, being so unambiguously vilified. Yes, within the text, Jet has some sense of complexity, especially in Book 2, but even that is undermined by his death at the hands of the Dai Li. Jet is never given the subjectivity of a character like Zuko. In fact, it’s pretty clear that Jet’s redemption and subsequent death happens when it does to demonstrate what Zuko is capable of if he makes the right choice. Whether or not this is a good decision writing-wise is another discussion, but the fact of the matter is that in using Jet to further Zuko’s arc, bryke used a Brown teenage boy/victim of imperialist violence to prop up the narrative of a light-skinned prince/perpetrator of imperial violence. This is not to say that Zuko shouldn’t have been redeemed or that Jet shouldn’t have died or that the narrative shouldn’t have dedicated time and attention to Zuko’s story, but it is to say that ultimately, the writers of the show decided that Jet’s subjectivity was a tool to further Zuko’s actualization. 

Contrast this to Spike. Bebop is about a lot of things, but a core part of it is exploring Spike’s backstory and way of looking at the world. It’s part of what makes the show the show. It’s the thing that keeps you liking the guy even when he says or does something absolutely unconscionable. Nothing in the show is more important than Spike’s subjectivity. The show may have individual episodes that focus on the other main characters, but it’s pretty clear that it’s really *about* Spike. Where does Spike come from? What is his obsession with the past? Why do all these people want to kill him? Who is Julia? These are all prescient questions that I had as a viewer of Bebop, and these were questions that were not only important to understanding Spike Spiegel, but to understanding the narrative that the writers, director, and animators are telling. Bebop is nothing without Spike’s subjectivity, and the people behind the show invest in his narrative even though he does some pretty horrible things! (kills many people, is part of a crime syndicate at one point, says some pretty misogynistic crap, hell, the whole concept of the show is that he and his buddies hunt people down for money.) As I said before, Spike is morally ambiguous, an antihero, and the people behind Bebop run with that, because that is an integral part of the story that they’re telling. 

You could certainly argue that ATLA, being a show for children, needs clear heroes and villains, to be unambiguous in its depiction of right and wrong. And to an extent that would be correct. But let’s not forget that ATLA is not shy in its depiction of morally ambiguous characters. That’s an integral part of what the show is. Characters like Zuko, Iroh, Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee are beloved despite (or perhaps because of) their complex moral frameworks. Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee in particular move between designations of villain, victim, and hero pretty fluidly (Iroh and Azula are two other conversations in themselves.) I personally am okay, and in fact delighted, to have Zuko, Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee in the show because I think their stories and the ways that they move between evil, good, and morally gray are incredibly compelling. We know why they act the way they do, and we can condemn or validate their actions while always knowing exactly where they’re coming from. 

But then I see Jet. Jet, whose village was burned down by the Fire Nation. Jet, who survived by himself and helped 5 other people survive along the way, while leading an organized resistance against the Fire Nation on wits alone. Jet, who somehow ended up in Ba Sing Se, his new family cut in half, wanting to start over. So much of him is a blank slate. Where Spike in Bebop, or Zuko, Iroh, Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee in ATLA, get fleshed out, have the writers convey specific information that helps the audience understand their actions and motivations, even if they’re wrong, Jet never gets that sort of care in his narrative. Jet never gets to be the center of ATLA, even for a moment, even in his own death. There’s always something more pressing, something more meaningful, than Jet. You could argue (I certainly would) that the show would be better if we spent more time with him, if the writers cared to understand him, but unlike Bebop and Spike, the show doesn’t revolve around the audience understanding Jet. The story is coherent without him. In book 3, despite the fact that Jet sacrificed his life for them, the Gaang only brings up Jet once, and that’s to condemn him. Jet’s story is a tragedy, an important one, but only insofar as it props up other pieces of the narrative. And that’s the most tragic part of it. 

[mystic-kitten-writer]

this might seem random but what are your thoughts on the netflix live action atla remake? it seems like you’ve been a fan for a long time so i’m curious

Anonymous said:

Did you hear? Creators left neflix over reative difference. What do you think?

Anonymous said:

creators quit the ATLA live-action Netflix show, whatchu think?

Anonymous said:

Bryke left the production for atla live action...its going to be shit.

I got tons of messages last night about Avatar the Last Airbender Live-Action, in production by Netflix (even more than what I copied and pasted here). I just figured I’ll answer this before getting back into writing as I’m taking a break anyway.

In short, I was always consciously optimistic. 

We got burned hard by the movie we shall never name, but knowing that the creators were on the production team for Netflix had given me a glimmer of hope.

But now that the original creators are gone?

I’m high-key scared and extremely nervous.

It’s important to understand that the creators of Avatar aren’t perfect people. They make mistakes, may have some out-there ideas. Still, ultimately, via a group effort with the original Avatar production team, they were able to create an amazing and heart-touching story. A story that still has a strong fanbase despite the show being more than 10 years old.

And now, after working with Netflix for two years, they have called it quits.

I can’t imagine, as someone who has created Limerence, working on something for that long and quitting.

Them leaving due to creative differences isn’t a matter of some small changes.

I read their posts explaining the situation and those messages aren’t your typical corporate talk of ‘we’re no longer working together but we love each other.’

They burned bridges, which means these changes are quite big and were a breaking point.

As much as we all love the original ATLA series, the redemption arc, the lore behind bending, and so much more - there were flaws.

I’m pretty sure that the creators (I believe they mentioned in an insta post?) said that they’ll be given more time in each episode to explore a few themes or scenes that they didn’t in the animation. Therefore, we can assume that rather than changing the plot, they were keeping accurate to the story, but fixing those loose ends and making specific plot points more apparent. Taking the show from amazing to perfect. 

But now with Netflix and these ‘big changes’ - I’m 99% sure what these changes are.

As much as I hate to say it, I’m pretty sure Netflix is going to take ‘a family-friendly show filled with adventure and growth’ to a ‘teenage love story filled with drama and a side order of adventure.’ 

Netflix has produced some fantastic shows, but they also produced some smelly shit like the Death Note Live Action. 

White-washing is most likely going to be a thing.

Ageing up the character to ‘sex-up’ the show (Riverdale x ATLA cross over - is that you I see in the distance?)

A love triangle between Zuko, Katara, and Aang (because people love pointless love triangles)

And the cherry on top is Mai is going to be the ‘villainized’ crazy ex-girlfriend (people already shit on her character, might as well add fuel to the fire).

They’re going to make characters like Sokka nothing more but comic relief.

Zuko into some angsty ‘bad boy.’

Aang is either going to be infantized OR - they’re going to westernize his character so he can fit the westernized perspective of what is conventionally ‘attractive’ (in other words, a Zuko 2.0). 

I’m listing all these things on the top of my head, and I’m doing this because I already know how Netflix works. This is the shit they pull, and it’s sad.

I’ll be honest, when the show comes out, I’m going to wait for reviews before I watch it. But I swear, if this show ends up becoming a love triangle and the bending and stuff is a side dish - I’ll sue.

I pray they keep the show family-friendly, fix the loose-ends and add a few scenes (like Aang apologizing for the kiss he stole from Katara. Sure they like each other, but Katara was rightfully upset, and Aang was clearly regretful about it afterwards, but adding a scene of him apologizing and Katara accepting it versus us speculating would be amazing and make such a statement). 

And while all the things I listed above could totally still happen even with the original creators on board, I highly doubt it. With the great flop of the live-action movie and how pained they were with that, making sure this was amazing was personal.

We can only hope Netflix doesn’t mess it up because judging by the reactions of the fandom, people aren’t impressed.

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

Why do people in the anime community often like to shame the love for FT? I mean, I know that FT is problematic in some aspects, but I don’t understand where this hatred came from

Listen, i can't speak for the fairy tail community. Only for myself and for what i've observed.

I've been in this fandom for about 7/8 years and over the years, it has changed a lot. Now the fandom has always been vocal about the issues of Fairy Tail, thats nothing new- because Fairy Tail is not a perfect series. There is no perfect media, the closest being ATLA and FMA but thats another thing.

What are some major changes i've seen? A few major ones. One, After Naruto and Bleach a lot of the toxic fans from those series migrated into other fandoms, with fairy tail being one of those fandoms. So there was an increase in vile posts and anon hate.

Two, after Tartarus a lot of the fandom started to leave. Why? They were dissatified with thr course of the story from Avatar arc onward and when they expressed those dissatisfactions they were bullied off for not being true fans of the series.

Three. Theory blogs and critique blogs started to die off. Why is this relevant? Because consuming media for all that it is blindly and accepting everything that happened with said media is just boring. All fandoms have this section for theories and to dissect the show/book/movie/series, with reference back to said media to show that the criticism is not unfounded and holds base.

But for some reason, Fairy Tail fandom from about 2018 onwards developed this nasty attitude towards criticism, seeing it as hatred and disrespect towards the series and attack the person/blog, when actual hate blogs against the series are still very much so active to this day.

Four. Lack of distinguishing a critique from straight up hate and taking everything to heart. This is just a big issue of people misidentifying things. I don't know how or why, but people can't distinguish between the two anymore and for some reason people had started taking critique posts to heart as though it were a direct attack upon them so now a person can't even state that they dislike X character without someone taking it as a personal stab.

Five. The general focus off the overall story of the series moving to just ships. When the story started to go down and be less logical, people started focusing on ships a lot more, leading to complacency. So even if now someone were to express their dissatisfaction with a chapter (like with the sequel for instance) there is an incredibly high chance of someone hopping on the post with comment along the lines of 'but X ship moment this chapter was so cute!' or 'you just arent happy that your ship got spotlight' or 'be grateful that we're still getting content'. Complacency became the norm when a good chunk of people took up the attitude of just be happy with getting content.

From where i am viewing the fandom over the years, people aren't shamed for liking Fairy Tail. Instead they are shamed for not liking/approving of every single thing that happens. Fairy Tail has adopted this weird purity culture with regards to its source material and creator where any criticism against either means you're a fake fan, or liking fairy tail for clout.

TL;DR. Fairy Tail isn't perfect, neither is mashima. But over the years the fandom attitude has changed where people think they are. People also fail to identify what is true hatred of the series versus a simple criticism and because of that failure a lot of people get needlessly attacked causing more toxicity.

[alexzalben]

I... cannot believe Netflix had so little respect for Michael and Bryan that they up and left the live action ATLA project. How ridiculous.

I’m pretty shocked about the news, honestly, and it shows a bit of difference in how they approach their TV series versus movies, with the latter being “let us feed the artist’s vision.”

I mean, on one level I get that they’ve figured out how to Domino’s Pizza their formula so that it’s not too bland but also not too spicy for everyone, particularly when it comes to family/teen shows. They’re big hits, everyone likes ‘em, and usually they’re not trying anything crazy.

...but Avatar was an ENORMOUS hit for Netflix in its original form. HUGE. For WEEKS. They should realize that it isn’t about Netflix, it’s about Bryan, and Michael, and the rest of the team.

The other part? I really don’t need to see a live action Avatar. I’ve seen the animated version, it’s perfect, I love Korra, I’m happy to follow them into Avatar: 2049 or whatever they do next. But the only thing that made me interested about this Netflix version was that Bryan and Michael were involved, and what they would do with a live action budget. How would it change with longer running times, different actors, etc?

Now, I honestly do not know who they could bring on that would be make me interested/excited. I’m glad B & M are positive about the team they’ve left behind, but it just all feels tainted and uninteresting now. It’s really sad.

[snarkyhetalian]

Hi! Hope you're having a good day! If you don't mind me asking, why did George devalier stories had so much success? I read WMA, AWS and BS, and while they were nice stories, the characters were sweet, and they were truly well written, still I don't see how it became a cult. I mean maybe that's because some historical inaccuracies were really jarring for me, and maybe for other people they're not. I'm genuinely curious, and I really like your analysis so I hope this question won't offend you

 Well this turned into a book.  Lmfao.Before I get too deep into this so it’s not missed, would you please send me what you noticed as historical inaccuracies?  I’m not much of a history buff myself (I’m a math/science person, and only more recently literature and even that it plot focused which is more like math to me anyway) so if you could point those out, I’d appreciate it.  I haven’t noticed many myself, and that’s probably part of the answer to your question.  Whatever historical inaccuracies there are, people generally aren’t noticing them.But, a series can have lots of flaws and people still love it.  It’s about mass consumption, not each individual thing.  No one is perfect either, so mistakes happen.  Any sort of fame is about getting around issues that a majority would consider unassailable.  The good points outweighing the bad points enough that people over look them easily.  Talking success-wise, I think you hit on some of the points.  The characters are relatable, which is highly attractive to many readers.  If a reader can’t relate to the character somehow, they usually end up not caring.  But another point on that is character diversity.  That was one thing that stood out to me when I read deValier’s stories, was how well he could switch from one character to another and it flowed without effort.  He wasn’t inserting himself or bending the characters to be what he wanted.  The characters who they were and the story build off of that.  Which is a separate point.  In fanfiction, generally the more the author can keep to the original characters from the series, the better.  Obviously, changing things is doable within reason (or because of a specific reason), but deValier kept most of the character qualities and simply put them in that time period.  This was a big reason the ATLA movie was a flop.  Not only did the characters change drastically from the animated series so that the part of the characters we loved were taken away, but that ended up having a huge effect on the theme too.Obviously, deValier’s grammar and whatnot were very good for fanfiction (beyond the occasional typo here and there, but again fanfiction, human error, and some mistakes are easily overlooked).  It was clear he knew how to write and any errors were simply mistakes that anyone could make.  It’s not like he didn’t know how to spell or where to separate quotes or other things that can be annoying.Then there was the plot/theme.  To me, from what I’ve noticed in my writings, the plot is that thing that people don’t notice about a story that makes a huge difference.  And this would be because it reaches from one cover to the other, so you have to sit back and reflect on the whole thing, or reread.  But a good plot makes you want to reread.  To see things you didn’t see the first time.  A good theme makes people think about the story even after it’s over.  Good themes bring up questions that people want answers to and will think about for ages.It’s kind of hard to define too, but I can sit here and say things like “Suicide Squad” had a terrible plot and I didn’t notice a theme (fun characters though), while “Lord of the Rings” had a great plot and an amazing theme.  We can see it, but defining it is difficult.  In my own writing, a good plot has seemed to come from having a focused theme on what the story is about (I’ll talk a bit about that later).  Of course, there are some guidelines on when to have ups and downs, side plots, underlying themes, and I can talk about Midpoint Mirrors and whatnot till my face turns blue, but none of that comes easy without a focused subject.  In AWS, it was a peace versus war kind of plot.  Not quite that black and white, but you’ve got one super-nationalistic soldier and a boy who picks flowers and goes to the market...teaching the soldier how to love life.  And the soldier teaches the boy how to grow up and deal with the world.  It’s the sort of story that makes you think about life.  And death.  Same with WMA, except it looks are heroism, and how heroes aren’t really what we think they are.  And it’s contrasted with a pub owner.But that one was one of his first, so I have a feeling if he rewrote, it would be better now.  In BM, it’s the happy-go-lucky spy and the grumpy misunderstood wannabe hero that end up in a patience battle (they both have to wait extraordinary amounts of time for each other).  And I wish that one would have been finished....One thing I’ve noticed in my writing, is that...you don’t need popular pairings...or sex scenes...or a lot of things that tend to make stories popular easily.  Plots and themes have gotten me very far.  One of my most popular stories has this random ass pairing, in a weird au, with no sex yet, but the plot is so good.  It keeps me up at night thinking about how to weave it together and the consequences of everything.  It’s exciting.  And the focus of that one is how people want to change themselves constantly, and how in love it’s a fucking terrible idea.  Lol.  You NEED someone to love you for who you are!  But it’s so hard to be who you are....And it shows that.  It’s something I question myself constantly.  Where’s the line between self-improvement and being yourself??  I’ve never once said it in the story, and I probably never will.  But it makes me think.  It makes the readers think. People want answers.  And it keeps people guessing, wondering, wanting, needing....that’ how you draw people in.  That’s what deValier managed to do in his stories too.  The types of conflict he posed kept people NEEDING to know what happened next.  And at the end, it was rewarded in a manner that people found pleasant.  Because that’s something I see a lot too.  The plot is great, but the ending is a flop.  Or you were just expecting more...like Eragon.  I LOVED the books but the ending was kind of a let down.  It didn’t....resolve really.  In LOTR, the same ending made sense, but in Eragon it didn’t.So let’s talk about the endings.  In WMA, it’s exciting.  The supposedly dead hero is alive and right around the corner.  But their reunion is complicated by the possibility that Alfred is going home.  And there’s pain we can understand.  Not wanting to face a brutal reality and instead avoiding it until it becomes unavoidable.  All the way until the end, there’s things that could ruin it, but the readers are rewarded with snippets of their happy lives and all the pain beforehand makes the happiness that much more brilliant.In AWS, again, up until the end things go wrong, people are presumed dead, then they’re injured, then there’s a problem with their romantic life afterwards.  But at long last, the readers are rewarded with very touching scenes.  And rewarded in a realistic way.  And we get to see the characters from WMA and it makes us feel like there’s closure.  For those characters at least.  The endings were never a given throughout the story.  It could have ended so differently.  And in real life, it usually does.  But that’s why I think people tend to turn to fiction (and naturally why people prefer happy endings).  It’s escape for the masses and deValier’s functions as such.  But those endings played off of the stories themes.  At the end of AWS, they live together and are at peace as opposed to their being separated and at war.  In WMA, again separation that makes the ruinion sweeter, but there’s acceptance from the world which was important for Arthur.  And there are pieces that show that Alfred has learned that being a hero isn’t as important as being loved.  We get to see their major conflicts resolved.   And it wraps the stories up very well.So that’s why I think deValier’s works became so popular.  There were a lot of parts that a lot of fanfiction authors can’t always pull off, but he did it so well.  And a lot of those parts were tied together to enhance the experience.  He had so much going for his stories, most of the things that could be criticized were easily overlooked or went unnoticed completely.  At the same time, there are probably other stories out there that deserve just as much attention but will never get it.  Fame is weird like that....Also, please don’t forget to tell me what historical inaccuracies you noticed.  I’m very curious.