#but they failed to give Katara any personality

[lolabearwrites]

Half way through the live action and I have to say, there is a lot of potential in this. The actors are pretty good, the effects as well. There are genuinely funny/sad moments. You can tell they are actually trying to bring Avatar to life.

I think the biggest problem this show has is telling instead of showing. And clunky dialogue. If they tweak stuff I feel like this show could go from mediocre to genuinely decent.

[dreamchasernina]

The live action writers hate Aang

I have given myself a lot of time to think about the live action, and reached the conclusion that the writers hate Aang. I dare you to read read this and tell me I'm wrong.

Let me start this by asking you a question? What's the most badass scene Aang has in the first season of the OG show? No matter what you answer is, I know for sure, that scene doesn't exist in the live action. Aang does absolutely nothing to prove the audience he is the right person to be the Avatar, he learns absolutely nothing throughout the show, he doesn't need to look into himself and change his way of thinking. Nothing. Most of the fundamental lessons Aang learns throughout the first season are gone.

The first mistake Aang does in the OG is staying at Kyoshi island too long, letting the attention go to his head, getting too comfortable. He realises he brought destruction to the island and tries to fix his mistakes by jumping onto the Unagi to help the village. That's how he learned the responsibly he holds as the Avatar and finds a unique way to help the village. Well that doesn't exist in the LA. Instead, Kyoshi takes over Aang's body to fight the whole fire nation for him. Aang, himself, does literally nothing.

The spirit world. In the OG show Aang is forced to face his Avatar duty for the first time by trying to save the village that's beeing attacked by Hei Bai. This is his first test as the Avatar and he fails. Not only that, he loses his friend. So Aang has to figure out himself how to get Sokka back from Hei Bai. He figures out who her bai is, himself, understands why Hei Bai is angry and gives him hope, the way Katara gave him hope. So we see that even though Aang failed at first, he kept trying and was smart and compassionate enough to realise what the problem is and solve it. This does not exist in the LA. Aang sees Hei bai in the spirit world, within a second realises who he is and just gives him the Acorn, without having to face him at all!

Another reason I'm convinced the writers hate Aang is the way all the avatars + Bumi treat Aang. Everyone is mad at him for disappearing for 100 years. And look, I get that, you can be mad at him if he ran away from his duties...but he never did! He went to clear his head on Appa and got caught in the storm. And if he hadn't run away he'd be dead, so why are you all so mad at him?! Bumi being mad at Aang could make sense, because in the OG show Aang did spend a significant amount on time of goofing around before he finds out about the comet. But here, it makes no sense! Bumi is mad for no reason. As soon as Aang got out go the ice he took his duty seriously, so please, make it make sense! And the show just glosses over the fact that if Aang hadn't run away he would be dead with the rest of the air benders. Instead of letting Aang feel guilty himself, which he does in the OG show, they just get these characters to hate on him, because they're incapable of making their characters have any emotional depth.

Aang doesn't learn water bending. At all. And there is no logical reason for that. I guess they thought it wasn't that important but please explain to me how you want to make Aang more serious and focused on the Avatar duties but not make him learn water bending? The literal next step Aang has to take to becoming the Avatar?? That is the only clear goal Aang has from the second episode of the show - to find a master and learn waterbending! Make it make sense!

Taking away Aang's talk with Koh. So I assume if most people didn't answer my question above with the Koi fish, they probably said Aang's journey into the spirit world and his meeting with Koh. In the OG show, Aang has to find a way to figure out how to save the water tribe. He does so by going into the spirit world and talking to Koh the face stealer. So Aang had to talk to Koh showing zero emotions so he doesn't have his face stolen. That scene is so creepy and so badass and shows that Aang is really capable, even though he is a kid, he is facing the creepy ass spirit and is doing an excellent job. So when Aang finds out who the moon and the ocean spirits are, it feels deserved, it feels like an accomplishment. In the live action he doesn't have to show zero emotions because Koh is not stealing faces, he's just stealing random people for whatever reason. Koh tells him exactly what to do, bring me a MacGuffin so I can release your friends, Aang just goes to see Roku, no problem, no obstacles to overcome, brings the Macguffin to Koh and he just releases his friends. Wow, really shows us how resourceful Aang is by making him...get an object and give it back to Koh...

And the very last point that I absolutely hated in the show. When Aang goes into the Avatar state and becomes the giant koi fish and wipes everyone out, the live action show goes out of its way to emphasise that that is not Aang in there. Aang is gone. The Koi fish is just rage. and that's that. Taking away ANY agency Aang ever had. Look, I know in the OG show Aang is not in control of the Avatar state either, but we know that's still Aang in there, that's his power he's showcasing. He might not be in control but that's him doing it all, being all powerful. But in the live action, they tell us Aang is gone, that's just his body the spirit is using. Plus Aang does no watebending himself, no gestures like the original where you can see aang in the sphere water bending, controlling the giant Koi fish, showing us how far he's come as a water bender. But in the LA he's just in the sphere...doing nothing because he never learned water bending so of course that's not him doing all this cool shit.

I am so angry over all of this. This is you MAIN PROTAGONIST. and you made him nothing but a vessel to progress the plot. You gave him no character, no growth, no struggles, no power! So no, you cannot convince me, at this point, that the writers of the live action don't hate Aang. Probably as much as they hate Katara.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

So many Zutarians claim that Bryke created Kataang as a fantasy fulfillment for their interest in the babysitter trope, but for the life of me, I cannot find this interview or article anywhere. Does this video/article even exist? Or is this just another case where these rabid fans either misremembered or took it wildly out of context again???

At least back it up with a link or screeshot, loser. C'mon, we should all be better than that. We should all also be enjoying our ships in peace but yet these crazies can't help but maintain their ship was "robbed."

I saw the video (after searching in the notes of some post about it), and while I do very much disagree with Bryke's sentiment on it, that is not exactly what they said.

They said they're suckers for romance and to see the guy that likes a girl that sees herself more as his older sister/babysitter, aka has a responsibility to him, slowly realize that she actually DOES like him back and doesn't have to see him as just someone she's reponsible for. Not quite the same as "Katara IS his babysitter who eventually decides she wants to fuck the kid she's looking after" and surely not the same as "This is personal sexual fantasy of ours" - but still inaccurate to canon Kataang if you ask me.

Even when Katara isn't really looking at Aang as a potential future boyfriend, she's already quite fascinated by him and is bothered by all the attention he is getting from girls on Kyoshi Island. I don't exacly get babysitter/older sister vibes from literal jealousy when someone demonstrates interest.

Katara dressing up as Sokka's, aka her actual brother's, heavily pregnant wife doesn't give me weird vibes because it's clearly just kids being silly. But if she had acted towards him whenever he was flirting with a girl the same way she reacted towards Aang as early as episode four? I'd Have Questions & Need Some Answers.

And don't get me wrong, you guys know I'm a freak that enjoys actual incest ships. If Kataang had any "sibling" vibes, I would not hesitate to point it out because it doesn't gross me out - but they just don't. They were not raised together, they act like two unrelated people that have a mutual crush on each other, and Aang even full on asks her if she thinks of him as just her little brother to which Katara says no. It doesn't get any clearer than that.

Bryke might have wanted it to START OFF like that, but they fucking failed. At most you could say "Early on, Katara did have a crush on Aang, but it was not as intense as his crush on her", but it NEVER came across as "She views him more as a responsibility instead of a friend/potential boyfriend."

[whiteruncat]

I hope Netflix never gets ahold of another person’s artwork in attempt of a LA like they did with ATLA. If you can’t fully honor someone’s art and respect their ideas then don’t bother with a LA. It’s the most legal form of stealing artwork and creativity. It’s just cruel. And it’s so agitating to see the people saying “Well they tried” “They did their best” “You have to consider” Netflix should have been the ones to consider that maybe they should never have took on something they couldn’t do correctly. They have disrespected so many characters.

* Netflix took out sexism only to throw is back in! Yeah Sokka was sexist but the level of audacity to make the mighty Kyoshi Warrior Suki just another romantic interest is shameful.

* What happened to Katara saving a village of earthbenders? Katara started out strong and only got stronger by walking boldly with compassion, love, and the strength to help those around her.

* Let’s not forget about Bato & Hakoda. They are honorable and respected warriors of the Southern Water Tribe. Neither of them would let Sokka pass his ice dodging test if he failed it. They both love Sokka and respect Sokka too much to lie to him. Sokka passed his ice dodging test btw with Katara, Aang, and Bato.

* Ozai’s attitude towards Azula doesn’t make sense at all. Ozai basks in the glory of being a powerful firebender. His identity is firebending. Ozai married Ursa so his children would be powerful firebenders. Ozai wanted to kill baby Zuko because he wasn’t a powerful firebender. Ozai almost killed Zuko again after he rudely asked for the thrown and was told to sacrifice his son. Azula is Ozai’s pride and joy. She’s the firebending prodigy that’s perfect. Azula has never had to worry about whether her father loves her because Ozai has always favored Azula.

* Just me thing but I think Ozai was way scarier without a face. Only knowing him as Zuko’s father that burned his eye was like wow this dude is evil. Then the season 1 ending with Azula was an ominous beginning for them both.

* It’s kind of sad seeing Sokka so unconfident as a warrior. Sokka is a genius and he’s a warrior. He saw through Jet and saved a village. He played airball with Aang to cheer him up at the Southern Air Temple. Sokka helped trick the Sages to open the door for Aang to meet Roku. Sokka also got covered in snot when he first met Appa.

* Pakku didn’t find Katara’s necklace on the ground and I can’t believe they’re going to just write off Gramp Gramp like that. Why doesn’t Aang ever learn waterbending? Like the first season/book is called water and he is supposed to go the North Pole to learn waterbending. He doesn’t even know any waterbending by the end of the first season. You wrote out Iroh hitting on June but you wrote in June hitting on Iroh. Seriously?? Is Smellerbee the only girl in this LA that’s correctly done right? The Cave of Two Lovers isn’t even in season one!! It’s in season two.

* Bumi was done dirty. Aang, Katara, and Sokka got arrested for being goofy kids and destroying cabbages. Bumi came off as this mad king that was giving Aang three deadly challenges. Each one Aang had to think differently to solve. At the end when Aang realized the king was Bumi they laughed together and reminisced. Bumi set it up to show Aang that he would have to face many difficulties ahead as the avatar. He had no hard feelings towards Aang once. Bumi was so hateful in the LA towards Aang he acted like he flat out just wanted to hurt Aang.

* Aang is another big one obviously. He’s a kid and that’s just how he acts. Aang also chose to runaway. He was almost alone once he learned about being the avatar. His friends didn’t play the way they used to. And his best friend Gyatsu was all he had. When Aang heard they were going to take him away from Gyatsu he ran away because he knew that he would be alone. Being avatar wasn’t so much seen as a heavy responsibility at the time to a kid like Aang but it was the cause of his loneliness and he resented the title. Learning the abilities that followed were cool to Aang because he wasn’t alone and had new friends. LA Aang acts so serious and mature when Aang is serious-ly not mature at all.

I have to congratulate Netflix on one thing though. I hated the LA so much it made me miss the animated ATLA so I went out to the store and bought the animated set. Rewatching it is reliving the best days of my life.

I don’t blame any actors in the LA. I truly think they all did the best with what Netflix gave them. It’s not easy to act with bad script. 10/10 would have loved to have seen them in a good LA of ATLA made by the creators.

[stardust948]

do you have any zutara or atla fic recs?

Oh yes! I have plenty!

Fluffy fics

Questions & Answers by @gemgirl28

Kya and Lu Ten learn about the Hundred Years War, and Kya has a lot of questions for her Father about his role in the war. Or The Steambabies learn the origin of Zuko's scar.

A Month of Sundays by ok_boomerang

Fire Lord Zuko is desperately trying, and continuously failing, to successfully propose to Ambassador Katara. She's oblivious; everyone else is entertained. Meanwhile, Zuko is giving weekly Sunday speeches to the Fire Nation in an effort to help his people feel closer to their government. This effort was not supposed to include telling the entire Fire Nation about his plans for a future with Katara before even she knew about them. But it's fine! They promised not to tell!

Even Dragons Need Hugs by EKWolf2020

Zuko is missing his wife while off for business. While she is gone, he can't help but feel prickly and clearly misses having her near him.

Fire Dance by HomeAgainRose

Zuko goes with the gang following the events of Crossroads of Destiny. This is what happens when they're first in the Fire Nation and Aang ends up at the Fire Nation School. Katara wasn't exactly prepared for the feelings that come out.

little rays of starlight by JasmineTeaLatte

Izumi had been a mere babe during her first and only trip to the Southern Water Tribe, back before Druk had even joined their family or the twins were even born. She remembered freezing white snow flurries and huddling in her father’s arms for warmth, but little else...   Or, the Fire Lord and his wife take their infant daughter out on a trip to see the Southern Lights during the crown princess' first visit to the Southern Water Tribe. Takes place in the timeline of "The Phoenix and the Dragon" but can be read as a standalone.

vitamin z by thetasteoflies

Katara has a cold and there's only one person in the world she wants to see.

Angst/More Mature Fics

Incendiary by Anon

Bizarrely, the first thing Katara felt was a wave of relief. Zuko. Not Ozai. They just wanted her to marry Prince Zuko. And then the horror of it washed over her, cold and harsh and insistent; an iron grip on her heart.

Past the World's Horizon by Mauve_Avenger / @the-badger-mole

When Katara finds herself with an unwanted secret admirer, she and Zuko end up on a frightening adventure.

The Scourge of the Mo Ce Sea by ajstyling

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and with one look at her face he understood the truth of her words. She would kill him and not lose a minute of sleep.

i'm still here by owedbetter

"You see me."

And somehow, that makes all the difference.

thicker than water by akaiiko

Zuko tries to pick up the pieces of Katara.

AUs/Slice of Life fics

The Worst Prisoner series by @emletish-fish

What if Sokka was there during the events of the Blue Spirit? What if he accidentally kidnapped Zuko? It's not a poor life choice of it's an accodent, right?

The Prince of the Fire Nation by HarrisonHolmes2014

Zuko was raised in the Fire Nation royal family alongside his sister Azula. He has never known any life outside the palace, his family, or his homeland. But when two slaves claim that he is their brother, Zuko must face a destiny he never asked for.

The Fire and the Flood by @badlucksav

Katara has lived in the same town with the same people her whole life, and since the death of her mother, she feels like her life has been on hold. But then she meets Zuko, an intriguing stranger, and everything changes.

what you want is what i want by zelzenik

Katara isn't alone. She has Bumi and Kya. The three of them are family.

Zuko isn't alone either. He has Izumi. The two of them are family.

But maybe... just maybe, they can all be family together.

It Runs In The Family by Anon

Katara and Zuko were a lot of things. War heroes. Master benders. Fire Lord and Fire Lady. Their favorite occupation? Parents. They'd managed to find each other again and had children, who are part of a brand new world and mixed nations family. While isn't exactly easy, as shown through a repeating series parent teacher conferences.

Or basically, steambaby shenanigans because they have Sokka as their uncle and how could they not be wreaking havoc?

Shameless Self Plugs

They have stolen the heart inside you; but this does not define you series

At a young age, Katara is taken to the Fire Nation as the first candidate in an experiment to assimilate the 'savages' instead of wiping them out. She grows up alongside the Royal Family before eventually escaping. Years later, an oddly familiar Fire Nation solider shows up at her village looking for the Avatar.

Kintsugi series

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with gold. It treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. Zuko is tortured by Ozai after helping Katara and Aang escape Ba Sing Se.

Head Above Water

While running away from home after the Agni Kai, Zuko befriends a curious mermaid. He later learns how protective merfolk are.

Dead Hearts

Ozai is a mass serial killer who forces Zuko to lure his victims to him. It’s the same drill for as long as Zuko could remember until his father sets eyes on the new girl who just moved from the Southern Water Tribe.

Let beauty come out of ashes

Zuko is done with Spirit tales. Everyone knew worthless nobodies like him didn’t receive happy endings. He wasn’t even allowed to go to the ball to see his love, a veiled waterbender he met in the woods, in person. Zuko lost all hope until a mysterious dragon helped him with a bit of magic.

Always With Me

While moving away from the only home she’d ever known, Katara finds herself spirited away to a strange in between realm. There, she struggles to ink out a living with the help of a mysterious masked boy who promised to get her home.

Are There Still Beautiful Things?

Katara befriends a lonely boy and they spend the summer together until he suddenly moves away. She doesn't learn the dark truth about why he left until years later.

[eponastory]

K/tangers are really annoying. They basically claim we enjoy making Katara suffer in our fic for fun. Like exploring her relationship with A/ng in a negative light, the way it's hinted in canon that he was a neglectful father and possibly a neglectful husband. I mean, no? We like to write about it because we actually give Katara a voice that canon refuses to give to her. We let her feel things other than being A/ngs mouthpiece and champion. We don't want her to suffer, but how the post canon material is written, she seems to suffer by suddenly not having a voice anymore. The fearless, opinionated Katara we see in Atla isn't there anymore. She's a shell of her past after getting with A/ang. It's fair to assume that something negative is happening to her, and it doesn't mean we hate her. Actually, the og creators hate her. We just explore and disect the canon material and come to our own conclusions.

They also found out about the Katara keeps her scars trope from this years Zutara month and claim we hate Katara for not letting her heal her scars. Again, no? In canon, Katara's scars were inflicted by A/ng, and his reaction to it was overshadowed by Katara's feelings. By immediately healing them and letting them disappear, the show centers A/ng's feelings as more important because Katara immediately went to him to console him and make sure he isn't upset. Sokka was the only one who stood up for her. And that's my problem with K/taang. It's more about A/ng and his feelings than Katara. We don't hate her by letting her keep the scars. We actually love to explore her feelings and center HER perspective and experiences.

The fact that we even have to say any of this is a clue to how much Kat*angers actually understand the source material. While this ship discourse has been going on for the better part of two decades now, it certainly wasn't this bad until the recent influx of 2020 youngins just now discovering the show exists. (The ones who were in the trenches seem to not care as much because they are adults like myself and are better at handling their feelings) I'm going to leave it up to the failed education system for this.

I genuinely mean this because there is no more structure to the way English Language Arts is taught anymore. This is coming from someone who has been out of high school for almost twenty years and has seen the destruction of school curriculum. Its quite sad and I could literally use this discourse as a way to fuel the debate about the education system as a whole.

But I digress.

Katara is a character that has been cheated. I could effectively say that A*ng even cheats on her because he pursues his own goals without acknowledging hers at all or even worse, separates her from everything she has ever known. This is implied in LoK, so yeah. We can go there. Again, all of this is subjective and that's fine. But I'm a proof is in the pudding person and there is a looooooot of proof.

From the mouths of the creators themselves.

So yeah. We explore Katara's character like we should.

And it also begs the question of if the antis really know how character development happens?

Why torture of course!

I torture the shit out of characters. I'm not biased. I'm currently torturing Katara in a story to give her a more gritty personality. It's part of the process. You have to put them through shit in order to make them stronger. It's the flaws and the controversial things that make or break a person in real life so why not do it to a fictional character?

Anyway, I couldn't agree more with your statement, anon.

[ekwolfwriter-blog]

I just want to get this out but I am getting tired of people complaining about Live action Katara's lack of rage in the show. Especially because now, because it is missing from the LA show, there is a general trend of people that were annoyed with her behavior before now are defending it being part of her character. And before people think I am hating on them, no. I am not against people defending her rage, as I liked it a lot growing up and watching the show causally just as the next person. Katara was one of my favorite character of being a kind person while also taking names and kicking butt, she was that awesome. So more defense for her the better. Hell, I would say from just the interviews I have seen of Kiawentiio, she has - to me - the Katara sass and I am living for it.

What I am hating on is that the Live action Katara is getting ragged on for a lot of reasons - some valid, but other are (in my opinion) surface level stupid and not knowing of what actually might have been going on during the filming of season and probably the mindset that caused her character to be deflated. Because there is a lot to consider as to why it had to be condensed either for conveniences sake or - in my personal opinion - was done on purpose by two individuals that have a track records of curving that behavior in Katara to their desire.

Also: DON'T use this as an excuse to attack the actress! She is doing her best and giving her all! She is doing her job and any slander on her will be instantly blocked! I will not take any slander on her or any of the actors!

Also, mid spoilers so read at your own risk near the bottom

First thing we should consider: the amount of episodes. Yes, I am aware of the telling and not showing arguments that are being flown around. I get it. Normally, I am one of the biggest supporters that this show needed time to breath and let be to show than telling. If it had more time to breath, Katara's rage might have been more visible and we could have had more time for her arc to improve. And this is not to say that they could not have been able to do it, but I will say that this show NEEDED more than 8 episodes to be able to get as much in (To be clear, there are some shows that this works for - Amazon's Reacher and Legend of Zorro have short seasons and formatted for hour long content. But it makes sense for those shows because they are working within parameters of their medium and are newer (both are adaptions of older stuff but still) shows that can play around with the format better). For as ambitious as this project is, it has a lot to condense. At least that it is a show and not a movie, but still. Let's not forget that it could have been so much worst if it was a movie.

Now some people will say, "Well if they were good enough writers then they could have done more to show than tell," which fair. I will admit that there are infinite number of ways that they could handled some of the topics: such as Sokka's sexism and Katara's rage that everyone is missing. But with the landscape of media as is where you would be damned if you do damned if you don't if you so much as talk about some sensitive topic and you could be canceled for it instantly! Which leads me to the next point!

Second thing to consider: Multiple season renewal was never confirmed prior. Yes, we can all complain that the shows pacing was out of place. Yes, they cut some filler. And yes, it feels like we are getting too much of the world building through talking and now showing. But can you really blame them? To most people, if you saw the reaction of the cast before the news came out, you can see they were saddened by the fact they thought would not get a season 2. They changed their tune when season 2 and 3 was confirmed, and honestly happy for them. But again, that confirms to me that the writing had failed mostly because if they were never going to get their chance, might as well go all out. And with how easy shows can get picked up and canceled, I can see they needed to try and cram it in.

Which also plays into Katara's rage - they did not know if there was going to be a chance for her to grow and get bending abilities or go through her arc as steady as the animated. Again, I am not saying losing it was good, but that we need consider that if they were not going to get another season, they had to progress faster than usual. (Side note, while I like this show, Amazon's Hazbin Hotel has the same problem. We are steam rolling through what could be slow progression and change but can't slow because of episode constriction and no time to sit and allow the show to progress because it is so easy to drop the show for the studios, might as well end it on a note that at least can feel like it was it's own story.)

Speaking of studios, that would be my next point as well: studio and producer control. While I know directors can have a say in it, we should not forget about the studio that is allowing them to make this show in the first place and what they are asking for. As I keep saying, we don't know about what their restrictions are or if they can have more than a certain amount of episodes, and maybe that is a mandate of Netflix or something else, we as the audience don't know. We don't know what happens on set or behind the filming outside of glimpses and interviews, so for all we know, there was some changes to the script or teleplay to make it seem like they needed to cut Katara's rage to make her more meek. Which if this was the whole show, fine, that is a choice but not one I will have to like. But when watching the 3rd and 4th episodes, seeing Katara being a teenage girl and angry for once and even more open about her emotions was possible. Hell, it was the only times she was allowed to snap. And guess what people: it was because of the writing this time. That feminine rage you all wanted - while faint - was there. So clearly Netflix is not solely at fault - they have many mistakes but writing is not one of them.

But it is when you look who wrote what and where and what they were going for that - to me - puts EVERYTHING into place!

Final point: the original creators being brought on.

This might seem weird because one would think having the creators on the original show should be not as bad. The creators of the show is watching to make sure that the show is just right and that the characters feel the same or at least some of the story beats feel similar enough to enjoy. Why would them being on the set cause issues with the pacing and writing?

To a casual fan, yeah that makes sense. But to those that have been in the fandom, have see what they do post cannon to ALL of the characters - especially how they treat Katara in Legend of Korra - then anyone watching might have realized that that should have been a warning sign. Especially with how they would have wanted to depict the characters. And this is also the reason I think Katara's rage is gone: I think they wanted to make her like the comics version of her being a meek and demure girl that while caring was not getting as angry or as passionate about things because that would go against what Bryke wanted Katara to be in the show.

As I mentioned before, Katara's rage or at least genuine anger was only in for about two episodes out of the 8. And if you take out the 5th and 6th where she has been basically damseled with Sokka in the spirit world, that leaves on 4 more episodes to allow her to have her anger. Typically, one can thing, "Okay we can sprinkle it here or there in the other two and it should world". But all it takes is to see who was writing the episodes that truly not only hinder the world building of the show and breaks the rules of show don't tell or crammed it in so blatantly it feels like cringe and got rid of Katara being the one to free Aang because of her anger - was Bryke! They were the ones that were the head writers of the first episode and the 8th episode. The ones that had the most cramming down your throats dialogue, the clunky explaining of Aang's character out of now where and even curving Katara's rage or ability to be angry or snarky like she was in the show. Because Bryke wrote them, and also teleplayed a few - this being like adding notes and what the camera needs to do and how to frame scenes along side the dialogue. Meaning that they had some hand in making Live Action Katara this way.

If you notice in the episodes they didn't write: Omashu and the Cave of Two lovers - they were the only ones where Katara could be a bit more snappy and a bit more annoyed and vocal toward at least Sokka and Jet - not a lot but it was there. And oh would you look at that, the episode that they did not write had HEAVY hints for a certain firebender and waterbender being hinted at and color coded the lovers more vividly. And also, Katara getting to be empathetic while also not over explaining - which many always ragged on her for - where she could be human for once. Those episodes were the ones that they did not write and the story was somewhat better (Not better but I will take it over what we got prior)

And again, casual viewers might not know why this is a bad thing or probably wondering why I am against Bryke. But all it takes is looking at what they did to animated Katara that you all try to say "Was perfect as she was before" without considering what they did to her after the curtain fell. For any fan that has been following the show, you will find that most fans of Katara - the animated one -did not like what they did to her in the comics that continued their story and Legend of Korra, where she was a husk of a shell of her former self. And how she was all about "What Aang would have done, and what Aang did and oh how I missed Aang, he would know what to do". And yet, if she even showed any anger or negative emotions, she was painted as the bad person - easily look up Katara in the comics with a google search and you can see her being pushed around and flattened almost all the time when she is showing negative emotions that are genuine and not the funny mad in the show. Especially in the show as seen through this post, it did not always paint her anger in a natural thing for her or reinforced her angry as more comedic than actually something to consider as important until someone else stepped in to help her see it *cough* Zuko *cough*.

So to all the people that are trying to come after the live action Katara as being "Not the same energy girl power character who was expressive about her anger" you all "loved from the start'', please consider who and what was behind the scenes to make her this way. Especially since the animated show had other writers besides Bryke that understood Katara better if not more. Bryke wanted her to be more demure even in the pilot, and damsel. And yet the other writers gave her an actual story. Byrke have shown time and time again they do not want and angry passionate water bender that wants to be more active in changing the wrongs in the world, they want her to be more meek and docile and not fight back to let others save her in the comics and after. The OG had other writers that gave her her arc and Mae Whitmen give her the sass that we all love.

Live action Katara is no different. She has been trying to come into her own - with limited time to tell a story, limited time to get her arcs in fearful of cancellation, and with different writers, she can work, but not with Bryke. Same goes for the other characters too, not just Katara, but it seems that everyone pokes at Katara more and it is getting frustrating because some of these people just can never be happy with Katara.

Hopefully with season 2 and 3, we can have more time to flesh out the characters and maybe even have more show don't tell moments and being able to explore their feelings more. But only time will tell.

Rant over, sorry for the rambling mess.

[burst-of-iridescent]

atla live action thoughts: episodes 7 & 8

SPOILERS AHEAD

tw: opinions

things i liked:

i keep forgetting to say this but i love the stylization of the opening credits it looks so elegant

northern water tribe looks beautiful. the spirit oasis is stunning, this show almost never fails to deliver on visuals

i fucking KNEW they were going to end the season with azula producing lightning for the first time and it looks great i won't lie. can't wait for her blue fire

the pakku v katara fight is not bad actually, though it obviously doesn't hold a candle to the original. glad they kept the ice discs moment in because that was iconic and it does have a nice set-up of her learning it from the earthbenders

i do like that they allow aang to interact with different avatars and that they all give him different perspectives. it highlights the differences in their personalities and how the role of the avatar had to be adapted to the times they lived in

i can't remember exactly what it was but aang's line about how this isn't his world or his time went hard

"i underestimated zhao" "funny i figured that out as i was swimming away from the burning wreckage of my boat" i live for sassy zuko

good decision to take out pakku only deciding to teach katara because she was kanna's granddaughter. that reeked of exceptionalism and never sat right with me, so i appreciate that she at least proves herself and also that she includes the other women in the tribe when pushing him to let them fight

yugoda getting to yell at pakku for being a misogynistic idiot is exactly what she deserves, you tell him queen

KOIZILLA!!

seeing the fall of omashu to azula was an addition that made a lot of sense, and sets up the return to omashu episode in the next season nicely

things i disliked:

yue's wig was atrocious. can't believe i'm saying this but the shyamalan movie did it better. amber midthunder deserved so much better

the misogyny arc was a godforsaken mess. the northern water tribe is still sexist... but no one seems to be sexist except for pakku?? chief arnook seems to be grooming yue to take over as chief, the other male waterbenders are impressed by katara and respect her right away, yue seems to have a lot of autonomy, hahn is respectful and kind, and then pakku himself changes his mind on women fighting pretty much within one day. so what was the point of including it at all?

this show has completely nuked katara's rage. she would not be calmly announcing that she's fighting pakku as though it was a calculated decision because it very much wasn't! it was her sense of righteousness and outrage over injustice taking over and it hurts me deeply that they removed that because it's so important to who she is! i needed to see a LOT more power and fury in her in this scene but instead it felt extremely lukewarm

KATARA AND AANG NEVER. FUCKING. LEARN. WATERBENDING. for a show that marketed itself so heavily with the tagline "master your element" there isn't a lot of mastering going on here?? i'm sorry i don't buy at ALL that katara would be able to become a master with One waterbending scroll and watching some earthbenders. i know she's a prodigy but no one can be THAT prodigious. and it really makes her fight with zuko and subsequently being called master katara fall flat because i don't think i've been shown enough to justify that

also hate that my girl got knocked out halfway through the zutara fight because of the moon wtaf let her kick zuko's ass

a moment of silence for "aren't you a big girl now" and "you rise with the moon, i rise with the sun" you will always be famous

despite knowing the avatar needs to learn waterbending, pakku and arnook just?? walk away?? when they find out he hasn't??? SOMEONE TEACH THIS POOR BOY AN ELEMENT OTHER THAN AIR. ANY ELEMENT, I'M BEGGING

real quick, who had "momo saves a random little girl from falling rock only to be nearly killed and saved by yue and sokka in the spirit oasis" on their live action bingo? no one, that's who, BECAUSE THAT'S FUCKING BONKERS. people are dying all around them but sokka and yue decide this is the time to fuck off to save a lemur?? please be so fr

iroh telling zuko to remember his breath of fire when this show has not once established (at least, iirc) that power in firebending comes from the breath is... something. heavily dislike how little focus was given to the intricacies of learning bending in this series

HATE that they removed zhao dying because of koizilla and gave it to iroh instead. that was such a great moment of karmic justice for zhao and really highlighted how he brought about his own downfall through his pride and arrogance. i know they tried to show zuko's compassion by having him spare zhao and walk away (as a callback to the agni kai i'm guessing) but zuko risking himself to save the life of the man who tried to kill him in the original just hit SO much harder.

the pacing of the north pole arc in general was FAR too rushed. at least in the original animation we got the sense that they'd spent weeks there, but in the show it feels like it's been a couple of days MAX. there had to be much more time to build up the threat of the fire nation and the yue/sokka relationship

the sense of time passing was a problem i anticipated the show would have from the start because 8 episodes just feels shorter than 20, but i wish they'd at least done some montages or something to make it seem like time was passing between episodes. as it is, it felt like every episode picked up right after the previous and so the whole season felt like it happened within a week or two. which is a shame because it weakens the epic scale of their journey in having to cross the entire world

overall rating: 6/10. unfortunately i think these episodes were the weakest of the series both in quality of writing and entertainment value, but still fun to watch for the most part

[oneatlatime]

The Chase part 2

Apologies for the technical problems. Battery power must be conserved for necessities, which unfortunately does not include Avatar. But the power's back on now, so!

Picking up from Toph treating a senior citizen like a snooker ball...

I do like how Mai's not shy about participating in Ty Lee's nonsense.

The way Zuko Jr. says "I'll follow this trail" is very menacing.

We're continuing last week's cowboy theme.

This village has the same menacing single windchime as the village in the Spirit World Part One did.

This was may more satisfying than I was expecting! It was completely unfair how easily the Fire Nation ladies defeated Sokka & Katara so getting Appa'd was a nice payoff.

No disability unmocked this episode. Also nice stance from the lizard.

This whole scene with Toph and Iroh has the most beautiful backgrounds. I sense phone wallpapers in my future.

Forget about the visuals, every line of this exchange was golden. Two towering pillars of wisdom and emotional maturity meet for tea and not a soul goes untouched. Also a nice moment of calm in an otherwise frantic episode.

Can this PLEASE be the rock bottom for Zuko. I can only take so much more second hand embarrassment.

Fully-provisioned princess of the fire nation v. sleep-deprived half trained avatar v. starving outlaw who seems to have forgotten to bring his swords, the only weapon he's good at. Place your bets, folks!

Zuko in a nutshell.

Ok so we're getting the whole gang back together.

The whole whole gang.

The whole whole whole gang.

How the hell did they mess up six on one?!?!

A princess can't surrender with honour when she doesn't have any!

That was kind of Katara to offer to help. I didn't expect that.

Final Thoughts

This episode doesn't let up once. Even the break with Toph and Iroh having tea doesn't do much to dispell the rising tension from the chase. The musical stinger that plays over the title card was a surprise bit of foreshadowing in that way.

That tank thing was neat. Shame about what it contained, but that's a really cool design.

Poor Appa was once again the MVP this episode. It was uncomfortable watching him get so exhausted.

It seems like the thin veneer of level-headedness cultivated by Katara over the last season or so is indeed quite thin. It was interesting to see how the different characters reacted to being tired. Sokka was alternatively amped up and completely chilled out, Aang got quiet (until he felt Appa was being insulted), Katara reverted to her early season one characterisation. It's hard to say with Toph, because we've only known her one episode (it feels like more) but I think she just got more Toph-like.

Please let this be the end in Zuko's experiment with independence. He's not good at it. He needs uncle. Points for trying, but he failed, so please bring uncle back.

Sokka low key wins this episode. He's the one with sense, the only one who stays clear-headed when it counts, and it turns out that clear head of his can defeat the pokey thing Ty Lee does.

I don't know how much time is supposed to have passed between picking up Toph and the start of this episode, but I can't help but feel that Toph really got the short end of the stick here. She did give up everything, even if much of what she gave up was not that great for her personally. And in return she got to travel in a way that completely blinds her and get yelled at. Meeting Iroh was a nice consolation prize.

Now I kind of want a story where Toph doesn't come back to the Gaang and instead goes around unleashing bending hell on the earth kingdom.

Was there no b plot or c plot this episode? Everything kind of collided in the final couple of scenes, which I did not see coming.

Frantic is the word I keep coming back to for this episode. Everything fit together nicely. I'll definitely rewatch it when I have the chance to do so in one sitting, without unforseen technical problems.

[ikuzeminna]

In my previous post I talked about the women of Gundam Wing not being treated as awards or reasons for man pain for the guys and I’m actually a little surprised that no one so far called me out on Meilan because at first glance, she falls right into that category. Because her death is specifically there to motivate Wufei and do nothing else. No one else knows about her, her death doesn’t affect anyone or anything else.

Except for her grandma who is apparently still so grief-stricken she blows up her entire colony. Thanks for more trauma, Master Long.

But I guess I’m gonna call myself out here then and derail this into a meta about Meilan’s portrayal actually being male-coded. Apparently I’m also gonna make up words while doing so lol

What do I mean? Let’s first clear up what I meant when I said the Wing women aren’t used for man pain. Man pain is quite an umbrella term that’s supposed to describe any instance of the narrative portraying a male’s emotional pain be of a higher magnitude than anyone else’s within his story. Especially women’s.

In my post I was referring to the very specific case where a woman’s suffering is stripped from her narratively and made exclusively a guy’s problem, to the point it only exists if it’s in relation to him. Think Gwen Stacy’s death affecting Spiderman or 2009‘s Spock’s mom dying or Aang burning Katara and then moping about never firebending again, necessitating her comforting him about his (accidental) assault on her. messed up doesn’t even begin to cover that last one The girl with the puppy is actually an example of this in Wing because her death only exists to make Heero feel bad. She isn't even given a name. The most classic example really is a guy’s mom dying though and him being forever sad about it. It’s the easy way for the writer to give his manly man something to cry over without making him a wimp. Otherwise Kira from Gundam Seed would be more popular.

But when we get asked to name a famous fictional death, I think most people will pick Mufasa, the prime example ever of a death affecting the audience. And it makes sense. Because not only was Mufasa a good parent, who sacrificed his life to save his son, Simba’s entire hero’s journey is basically living up to his father’s example. It's what drives the story.

And that’s the difference between men and women dying in fiction, especially parents. If a mother dies, it’s something to be sad over (i.e. Spock). If a father dies, it’s a legacy to uphold (i.e. Kirk). Simba is never worried about living up to Sarabi’s expectations. Hiccup spends three movies trying not to shame his father. Katniss won’t shut up about what a great person her dad was even though her mom is right there, being the medic for her entire district, but never being worth emulating in any way.

The same goes if it’s just a friend. A female friend’s death is a devastating event, a male friend’s death is a call to not let his sacrifice be in vain.

Which brings us back to Meilan. Meilan may have been written as just a device to give Wufei a tragic backstory, which lands her squarely in man pain territory, but narratively she is the same category as Mufasa, influencing Wufei to the degree he changes his entire way of life to live up to her memory and hold himself accountable during the series when he fails to do so, which yanks her right out of it again.

Besides, Wufei never goes around openly mourning her death. It’s hidden in aggressiveness and weird sexism towards Noin and his odd reverence of his Gundam. I love that it was supposed to be a secret that would have been revealed at the middle of the series, just like everyone else’s backstories, had the schedule not been crazy, giving us the recap episodes instead. Alas...

But this is one of the reasons I love Gundam Wing so much. The colony leader Heero Yuy and the late King Peacecraft may be revered figures within its universe, but by the end of the series, and definitely by EW, the person the entire galaxy admires is Relena. A girl. Which is completely deserved for all the things she manages to pull off, mind you.

I love most that Heero admiring Relena also has a very personal aspect to it. He knows her. He knows how bullheaded she can be. She’s not an abstract to him, he’s intimately familiar with that Gundanium backbone of hers. That scene on Libra where they keep throwing compliments at each other is great. Relena tries to transfer her accomplishments to Heero, playing into narrative tradition of gender roles here where the guy always gets all the glory, no matter how competent the girl may have been (glaring at you here, Hiccup and Astrid >_>) and Heero, the show’s male protagonist, bounces it right back, telling her he is nothing compared to her, landing a sweet blow to narrative sexism.

Gundam Wing is a weird little show where I don’t know if one could call it feminist considering how every woman is assigned to a man, with Treize and Zechs and Duo and Wufei standing above their female counterparts due to their strength or lineage or because they’re the series’ Char clone, but within the roles it assigned to everyone, it does a wonderful job of not being sexist about them. Une is portrayed as more competent than Treize, who is more of an opportunist. Zechs outright says Noin is better than him. Wufei won’t shut up about Nataku and what a failure he is. It's like the show apologizes for being Gundam and made in the 90s, explaining why the pilots and big bads all have to be male, but they'll make the female characters as cool as they can to make up for it. Here, have some Sally and Noin being a badass duo or Relena and Dorothy carrying the philosophical debate during the Cinq arc.

....Except Hilde. I got nothing here because her and Duo are classic gender roles to a T, haha. But at least Duo is not being a jerk about it, which is more than can be said about most fictional guys trying to dictate a female’s actions. Duo lets Hilde make her own decisions.

[leafykat]

ATLA LIVE ACTION RANT/MANIFESTO

After watching it I started typing and couldn't stop. Sorry it's really really long and probably not very coherent.

(Since I wrote this, Big Joel put up a vid on his side channel talking about his thoughts on the first episode and he had a lot of points I agree with so watch that too if you’re interested) <- eta: ok jk sorry it already got taken off youtube it's only on his patreon now

I really dislike starting the story with the beginning of the war. It's like they don’t trust the audience enough to care about the protagonists without laying out all the Big Important World Context out right at the start, or they don’t trust us enough to understand non-linear storytelling. I’m trying really hard not to just hate on changes simply for being different than the show I grew up with, because god knows I have my own issues with it. There are scenes that are nearly shot-for-shot, line-for-line remakes of the original, which makes the parts they change really jarring and frustrating. I don't mind the way they combined some episodes or storylines or changed some details, like, June being the one who hits on Iroh instead of the other way around, but other changes just feel like they either miss something fundamental (to me) about the characters or the story or are just… arbitrary, which is almost worse.

One thing that REALLY frustrated me right from the start was that Aang wasn’t actually trying to run away. He goes flying to “clear his head” and gets caught in a storm coincidentally right as he says “ok Appa let’s head home”. Why? Everyone treats him like a coward anyway. Everyone is way meaner to him than in the cartoon about something that, in this version of the story, objectively was not his fault. Why? In the cartoon, he feels intense shame that he wasn’t there for everyone, even though he was twelve and about to be taken from the only person that wanted him to have a childhood, and he got so overwhelmed and scared by what the world expected from him that he tried to run away from it. In the live action, he gets to reunite with the spirit of Gyatso, who says, “you couldn’t have done anything if you had stayed. You just would have died,” (paraphrasing bc I can’t be bothered to give it more views just to get exact quotes) which is fine, I don’t think he needed a spirit world reunion with Gyatso but I can accept it. But if that’s what that gives Aang closure, what is the point of changing him to be less responsible for disappearing? In the cartoon Katara is the one who reassures Aang and helps him process his guilt, representing the people of the present who he can still help. The live action has the voice of the past, the people that he’s ‘failed’, reaching forward in time to absolve him of any sins. And remember that in this version he literally was trying to go home. It just feels like they’re trying to remove moral complexity from his character.

Less importantly (except to me maybe) I think that showing us the Air Temple pre-genocide removes impact of seeing it for the first time in the cartoon. I loved Aang hyping it up to Katara and Sokka, unwilling to believe that it could have fallen. It almost makes the viewer think maybe some of them could have survived in secret. Then, the contrast between his idyllic memories and reality start to sink in. It was an incredibly hard-hitting moment, dulled in live action by the audience having seen exactly what happened to the temple already (including an incredibly hamfisted “you can’t beat us while we have the power of the comet!” line from who I think was Sozin.) I think Momo is pretty cute though.

Another thing that pissed me off was the way they handled the Agni Kai: They combine Zuko's duels with Zhao and Ozai into one, where Zuko not only fights back against his father but gets an opportunity to deliver (presumably) a winning blow and hesitates. This choice weakens important aspects of his backstory and, to me, flattens his relationship with Ozai: 1) That he was never a prodigy firebender like Azula, feeding the inferiority complex that Ozai fostered 2) The Agni Kai was meant to be public humiliation, meant to teach Zuko ‘respect’. It was in front of hundreds of people, and it was a thirteen-year-old child against a full grown firebending master. Zuko prostrates himself and begs his father for mercy. His refusal to even fight embarrasses Ozai by exemplifying the 'weakness' Zuko's mother 'instilled' in him. In his duel with Zhao, Zuko makes a conscious choice to be merciful despite Zhao telling him to “do it” and kill him. Despite knowing how the fire nation views it as weakness, as cowardice, especially in this specific setting. It foreshadows his later choices, and shows his innate kindness. Combining the two duels doesn't allow us to see that parallel nor that growth. Reducing his act of mercy to a mere hesitation in the moment of victory, furthermore, reduces his agency.

In fact, the adaptation softens a lot of Zuko's role as an antagonist, giving most of his actually villainous actions from the cartoon to other characters. They keep him capturing Aang in the South Pole, but Zhao leads the attack on Kyoshi village, they remove the episode with the pirates (s1e9), combine aspects of episode s1e15 ‘Bato of the Water Tribe’ with ‘the Blue Spirit’ (s1e13) and ‘the winter solstice’ (s1e7/8) removing three instances of Zuko capturing or attacking Aang in favor of one with Zhao capturing and Zuko rescuing him. But I guess they add a fight in Omashu. Look, this is inevitable as a result of combining 20 episodes into 8. I don’t really mind streamlining a lot of these episodes, nor removing others (having episodes like ‘the great divide’ and ‘the fortuneteller’ only referenced as rumors Zuko hears in a bar is cute, to be honest), though the change to the Bato episode where Sokka merely has a flashback of his father implying he thinks Sokka is an incompetent warrior is a really unnecessary and bad change, to me. But they took out almost every instance of Zuko posing an actual threat to Aang and replaced it with one fight scene in Omashu. To me, what it feels like is the show runners know Zuko is going to become a Good Guy and thus they don’t want to make him act too Bad.

On the topic of Kyoshi island: giving Aang a reason to go there aside from wanting to ride the giant Koi, whatever. Removing Sokka’s chauvinism, okay, I guess. But it ends up replaced with extremely awkward flirting between him and Suki that feels motivated by nothing beyond each being the first non-relative young adult of their preferred gender either one has ever met. Whether or not you want to have Sokka start off sexist, and that could be a whole conversation on its own, him humbling himself enough to ask Suki for instruction was an important moment of growth for him that he doesn’t really have in this version. And they don’t even put Sokka in the dress and makeup!!! BOO! Also minor moment but I think it’s also sus for the show to have Suki remove her makeup as soon as it’s time for her to be a love interest and then just not wear it again. BOO!! She looked really cool though. It’s not like I think her first appearance in the cartoon is full of depth or whatever, and I think the cartoon turned her into a cardboard cutout as soon as she became a love interest, but it’s like the live action clipped through a wall straight to my least favorite parts of s3 Suki. It’s just disappointing. I also don’t like Aang being able to just talk to Kyoshi and his other past lives so easily but that might just be my cartoon-purist talking.

I didn’t mind putting Jet and Teo into Omashu, even though I think Danny Pudi’s ‘I had no choice’ justification for working for the Fire Nation holds up less well when he’s in a position of privilege in an Earth Kingdom stronghold as opposed to protecting a community of refugees in an isolated air temple. I don’t think they needed to add the Cave of Lovers plot from season 2 into the mix though. Not only that, but to rework that plotline so that 1) Aang isn’t even there, 2) it’s Sokka’s idea to put out their lights and follow the crystals, 3) that’s not actually The Solution 4) badgermoles can sense…. Emotions???????? Sorry that’s so fucking stupid it makes me angry. They include the legend where Oma and Shu learned earthbending from the badgermoles, so why would these giant creatures have learned to sense human emotion instead of the pre-existing explanation from the cartoon: sensing the world through the earth. You know, the thing that connects them to Toph’s earthbending. I guess setting up stuff as far away as… next season… isn’t important. They used the stuff from the season 2 episode “the swamp” for aspects of the winter solstice plot anyway, which is where Aang originally had a vision of Toph and thus was able to identify her as an earthbender in spite of her appearance. I guess they can come up with something else, but it’s just a decision that feels arbitrary. Sokka could have had his flashback without the spirit vision, but since this is before he meets and loses Yue they needed something, I guess. At this point I’m describing these changes not necessarily because I think they’re inherently bad but because I want to describe how fragile this jenga tower is getting, and how unnecessary they feel.

Ultimately it’s like… the things they’re the most faithful to are all the most surface-level easter egg references, while missing or changing the actual soul of the source material. Gran Gran gives the opening monologue word-for-word because Fans Will Get It. They include Bumi’s rock candy trick and lettuce leaf joke but make him resentful and angry at Aang for no reason I can understand. Sokka isn’t sexist anymore, he just has issues where his dad apparently thinks he ‘shouldn’t have lives in his hands’. Ozai is… wait- is he tearing up while he scars Zuko’s face?

I know we all love Daniel Dae Kim but we did not need Ozai so much this season, let alone Azula, let alone Mai and Ty Lee. We especially didn’t need a scene where Ozai praises Zuko to Azula while belittling her. For the record, because people defending this scene seem to think the issue is that the rest of us fail to understand that Ozai is playing his children against each other: That is not the issue. It’s that he did not play his children against each other in this specific way. He uses Azula to show Zuko how much he fails to measure up and threaten his position as heir, and he uses the example of Zuko’s failure to keep Azula in line. If she’s good enough and Zuko is bad enough maybe she’ll become heir. After all, that’s what happened to Ozai and Iroh. They are allowed to change this dynamic in adaptation but personally I think it’s a change for the worse, and the shot of tears in his eyes as he abuses his son lends credibility to an interpretation that maybe he does want Zuko to succeed. Lol. The cartoon focuses on Iroh’s reaction, his inability to watch, instead of Ozai’s… emotional conflict? Or whatever.

Katara and Sokka getting stuck in the spirit world as a replacement for their fever in The Blue Spirit is fine, I think condensing that plot and the winter solstice works decently. It’s fine that they changed Aang’s motivation for finding Roku to be getting info on how to save his friends instead of getting crucial info about Sozin’s Comet. After all, they clumsily introduced that in episode 1. It’s honestly fine (Read with as much cope in my voice as you want.) Combining that with Zuko’s half of The Storm is also…. Okay, even if I’ve already described why I don’t like how they adapted Zuko’s backstory. What frustrates me is that The Storm parallels Aang and Zuko’s backstories in a way that works really well with the events in The Blue Spirit. In fact, they’re back-to-back episodes. But the live action has moved Aang’s backstory to the beginning of the first episode. So instead of getting to see how they’re both constrained by the roles and times they were born into, and how heavily others’ expectations weigh on both of them, we have to have Aang explicitly spell it out for us. Rewatching these two episodes of the cartoon I was just really struck by how efficient the storytelling is. All Aang has to say after he’s saved Zuko is that he misses his friend from the Fire Nation, and that he wonders if he and Zuko could have been friends if they’d been born into a different time. All Zuko has to do is attack him in response. Because we’ve just seen why they can’t be friends in this time, in this world. The live action has to create some plot point about Aang having stolen Zuko’s diary, and Zuko having researched Airbender culture or something. They bond a little bit over brushes before Aang goes like ‘why don’t you turn against your family?’ The conversation (before that part) is cute, just like, not a good replacement for trusting the audience.

I guess once we’ve gotten this far it doesn’t matter much that Katara and Sokka have been captured by Koh, because of course they were. Yeah, they changed how it works, yeah, now he steals your face once you’ve succumbed to despair or something. Whatever. At this point it feels like nitpicking to point out that what made Koh so scary was that he would steal your face if you showed him any emotion at all. Who cares anymore.

^ok I wrote most of that before having seen the last two episodes, which cover the last three episodes of the first season of the cartoon. Dude it got even worse somehow. It’s been a couple days and my friends and I rewatched all of s1 of the original show in the meantime.

First of all, the changes to the dynamic between Hahn, Sokka, and Yue were completely inexplicable to me. Yue gets nominally ‘empowered’ in the sense that she’s no longer trapped in an arranged marriage to a total shithead, but at the same time they made Hahn seem like a… genuinely good guy? He’s humble, asks Sokka for his expertise, and nobly accepts that Yue broke up with him. When asked about it, Yue says ‘he’s great, he’s just not the guy of my dreams’, before kissing Sokka. (They also reveal that she was the sexy fox spirit that flirted with Sokka in the spirit world —I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t think it mattered at the time— so I guess we are meant to believe that Sokka is the boy of her dreams. Which we know from these two and a half conversations that manage to be way less cute than the awkward/shy flirting from the original show.) Even if they wanted to completely change Hahn’s character, Yue’s conflict in the original show was between her heart and what she saw as her responsibility to her people. They could just as easily have kept that element: that she isn’t in love with Hahn, but that for Political Reasons can’t just break things off. That’s way more interesting! But I do love a forbidden romance, so maybe that’s just me. The adaptation does say that they were at one point betrothed, which raises more questions than it answers. If both of their parents were anticipating this marriage so much that they set it up years in advance, why were they okay with her just breaking things off because she didn’t like him like that? Are arranged marriages in the Northern Water Tribe (I’m so sorry I forgot the name they gave it in this adaptation) purely meant to be love matches? There’s no financial or political element at all? Even for a princess? Whatever. Hahn still dies, this time it’s just offscreen. This time I’m actually a little sad for him, if just for his wasted potential.

They actually take out the engagement necklace stuff altogether, including the history between Pakku and Katara’s grandma, and the story of how and why she fled. I don’t really know why but maybe they thought “you lost the so-called love of your life to backward practices” was a weak reason to change his mind. So instead they have it that he doesn’t change his mind but it turns out Katara doesn’t need a master anyway because she’s already good enough to be a master! Despite not having been able to waterbend ‘more than a thimbleful’ before meeting Aang, and us not really getting to see her train at all. Gran Gran gave her the waterbending scroll she stole from the pirates in the cartoon, so I guess we can assume that contained everything you’d ever need to know. She loses the fight but wins the hearts and minds of the people. The women of the tribe support her when she goes against Pakku and go “we want to fight too!” Oh, did I mention this is all after they realize the Fire Navy is at their doorstep, so it’s less a fight about the right to learn waterbending than about the right to fight in war. And then again the issue of Katara needing to learn from Pakku is sidestepped by her magically being good enough now on her own. I don’t actually mind the change to include other women from the North standing up against sexism but to be honest I don’t understand taking out the betrothal stuff. It was a deliberate parallel in the cartoon- women trapped in loveless arranged marriages and also forbidden from learning any waterbending aside from healing. But whatever, it’s a choice. I can live with it.

What I don’t like is the way they’ve undermined Katara’s journey in season 1. Aang teaches Katara how to waterbend at first, and she also doesn’t learn to heal on her own before an elder shows her how to do it. In the cartoon, she’s been trying and figuring things out on her own all her life. Her hunger to find someone to teach her is a major motivator for why she wants to go to the North Pole. We see her struggle, get intensely frustrated and jealous that Aang picks up waterbending more naturally than she does, and work really hard at it. Her dedication and hard work are what Pakku eventually praises about her when he teaches her. He compares her to Aang, who is naturally talented but distracted. This is after an indeterminate amount of time, but whatever, condensed timeline, 8 episodes, whatever. We don’t even see Aang waterbend at all this season, which is kind of wild to me. I guess if you take out the Summer Solstice Comet deadline to master all four elements (which they did) Aang doesn’t really need to rush. Instead they kind of just have Aang have a thing of like “I have my friends to help me” which is….. ok….. Oh wait, is this why they don’t care that much about foreshadowing Toph? Are they just not gonna bother having Aang learn the elements and just have her show up and join them for whatever reason? Is that why they just totally removed ‘The Deserter’? Wait sorry, I’m assuming they’re planning that far in advance at all, my bad.

Okay also like I have to talk about this because it bothers me so much. Zhao was handled so badly. Whatever, have a Fire sage just give him the moon/ocean spirit exposition in a flashback instead of the way it unfolded in the cartoon (I guess we’re already not bothering to set up the great library since the gaang already met wan shi tong, I guess that’s… fine… Appa can get captured a different way, if they’re even going to bother with that plotline in season 2. If they’re even going to do a season 2.) Sure, the moon and ocean spirits are only in the physical realm and vulnerable for ‘only one night’ now as opposed to permanently. Zhao knows this but not that they’re fish. Okay. Whatever. Blah blah blah. Those are personal nitpicks. But what really gets me is that in the end, Iroh and Zuko kill Zhao. Or rather, Zuko doesn’t finish him off, Zhao tries to attack when his back is turned, and Iroh finishes him off (similar to the way their Agni Kai in the cartoon plays out.) In the cartoon, Zhao and Zuko are fighting, Aang-as-Ocean-Spirit grabs Zhao, and Zuko reaches out to try and help Zhao, which Zhao refuses. He chooses to meet his fate at the hands of the spirits he provoked rather than swallow his pride. This is such a good conclusion to Zhao’s character! The live action also fails to set Zhao up as a formidable firebender, which is also not strictly necessary but I think complements other elements of his character well. His first episode in the cartoon includes the Agni Kai between him and Zuko, establishing Zhao both as a firebending master and as someone who values his ambition and pride above all else. In s1e16, ‘the deserter’ we see him as the embodiment of fire’s destructive hunger: he is baited into destroying his own ships in his desire to “win” his fight with Aang. He gloats of how his siege of the North Pole will earn him a place in the history books, and to win he is willing to kill the moon, against Iroh’s exhortations. In the live action, we get a weird revelation that he was working with Azula, and she was the mastermind behind a lot of his plans? Huh? He also “reveals” that Ozai was only ever using Zuko to “motivate his sister”, which is both incredibly heavy-handed and completely redundant. I guess I should mention that the finale has a couple scenes thrown in where Azula is doing firebending training to pass some kind of arbitrary Test Ozai has set for her, while Mai and Ty Lee watch and tell her that her dad is like, being way too hard on her and she knows he’s manipulating her right? Thanks girls!

Anyway, I guess since the live-action completely removed the golden child/failure dynamic between Azula and Zuko we needed something to replace it. The “my father always said Azula was born lucky. He said I was lucky to be born” line summed up that relationship dynamic nicely. Oh well, who needs it. Instead Zuko is good enough to have beaten Ozai in a duel at 13, but Ozai decided he was weak for hesitating. Meanwhile Azula is struggling to meet his expectations. He banished his heir on a mission that, for the last hundred years, was considered a complete dead-end, so that he could, uhhhhh, Motivate her when he miraculously started succeeding. Masterful gambit, sir. Okay sorry to harp on that again. Back to Zhao. Actually, what else is there to say. He has a couple funny lines but he’s just not the same guy at all on either a superficial or deeper level. It’s so disappointing. It’s also just a really weak choice to make Iroh and Zuko responsible for his death. Maybe they couldn’t figure out how to make the special effects look good when the ocean spirit picked him up. It just misses the point of Zhao’s ultimate tragedy, to me. The man so lacking in self-control, so ambitious, so assured in his own superiority, that he saw the spirits themselves as his prey. To be destroyed by the forces he tried to destroy is so poetic! Instead let’s water down Zuko’s mercy and Iroh’s pacifism.

This is all I can remember at this point aside from nitpicks. Do I think the Koh vs Kuruk backstory needed to be spelled out like that? No. Did we need to almost have Momo DIE to get Sokka and Yue to the oasis? Not really. I don’t think the way Zhao “assassinated” Zuko in the live action made as much sense, but we took out the pirates so oh well.

When you get to a certain point I guess the question becomes ‘how much can you change in an adaptation and still call it an adaptation’. What do adaptations owe to their source material? Where does the spirit of a story reside? If the same plot beats happen, does it matter if characters are different? If the characters are faithful, does it matter if events are moved around? If the destination is the same, how much does it matter how you get there? What do I personally want to see in a ‘live-action’ adaptation of Avatar, this show that I loved so much growing up? Well, assuming that “don’t make one” isn’t a possibility, I would have preferred they follow more in One Piece’s footsteps. That adaptation wasn’t perfect either, and it condensed around 100 chapters of manga into 8 hours, but it really felt like it got the characters right. Avatar had a tough job too, but it condensed 7 hours 40 minutes of cartoon into 8 hours of- wait. No. Well at least we got the cabbage merchant.

[flameohotwife]

We've talked so much about kataang parenthood and the cloud babies, but I'm always up for hearing more of your thoughts on them. Really, I'd just give you that and let you talk away wherever it takes you, but how about this for more of a prompt.

Here's one that's been percolating for me lately. The cloudbabies grow up in a family that's not just their parents, but their entire community. Both Aang and Katara grew up in communities full of extended aunts/uncles/cousins (whether biological or not) surrounding them, and likewise their kids grow up on an island full of Air Acolytes that act as extended family for them. They're emersed in Air Nomad culture as a daily part of their lives. Both Aang and Katara would work to make sure they have traditional Water Tribe culture as part of their upbringing too, of course. (As you know I HC that Uncle Sokka is heavily involved in all their upbingings.)

I'd just love to hear your thoughts on anything extending form that or related.

Oh, absolutely. You knew what to send to make me go off, hahaha. Kataang as parents gets, I think, wholly misrepresented based on a couple one-off lines in LoK that were meant to show that even our favorites weren't perfect in parenthood (really, who is? I try my best but I know I fail my kids in different ways all the time), the same way the writers were able to show that each character had flaws in the original series. Aang has so much on his shoulders that OF COURSE he's not going to be able to balance that perfectly. And sometimes he (AND KATARA) will be too tired at the end of the day to think straight and might not be as attentive as they could/should be. I don't know how much of the criticisms are coming from people who are actually parents, though; who know intimately the constant daily (hourly?) pressures parents of multiple kids with widely varying personalities and needs are under. None of the parents I've talked to have felt this way.

I also love this idea of the cloudbabies being raised in a communal lifestyle, because you're right that both Aang and Katara grew up that way. Everyone always paints that as a point of conflict for Aang and Katara--that Aang wouldn't know anything of a nuclear family structure but really, as much as Katara did know that, her tribe was so close-knit that they were all like family as well. This was only amplified after the men went off to war and only the women and children were left behind. The cloudbabies probably have favorite acolytes that they run to when their parents are busy, and of course Sokka and Suki and Toph and Lin and Su are always around, too, or they're in the city visiting them.

And Aang and Katara take care of Toph's and Zuko's (and potentially Sokka's if he had any) kids like their own, too, whenever they're at their house. Once they're teens/preteens, the kids all cross the bay on the ferry themselves and hang out together when they can, and all the adults just know to feed whoever is there and have extra just in case their parents come looking. I'm reaching this stage with my oldest and I can really see Aang leaning hard into this, giving Bumi's friends a ride over on Appa when he sees them in town, telling stories from the war (maybe embellishing a bit) to Bumi's intense embarrassment but his friends' joy, making sure they have an extra fruit pie to take home to their parents after... Aang might not be anybody's pro-bending coach but you can bet he finds other ways to be involved in his kids' lives and is always so, so proud of the little humans he and Katara created, regardless of bending ability, grades, or anything else (though I hc that all the cloudbabies are pretty brilliant in school). They're going to have insecurities and complaints because they're all HUMAN, but they won't doubt for a second that they are loved ("That's one happy family")

Well that became a novel, haha. Thanks for sending me your kataang thoughts(/thots) and for asking for mine, too!

[thatoneguy56fanfic]

Inspired by this awesome post I decided to try my own version!

Excerpts from The White Lotus Avatar Guide Book (Unofficial)

Or updated protocol concerning Avatar Korra.

1. Get used to the nicknames.

1.1. Avatar Korra does occasionally give multiple nicknames to the same person.

1.2. If you value your life, DO NOT ever call Chief Lin Beifong “Chief Cranky Pants”.

1.3. Avatar Korra is the only one allowed to call General Kuvira “General Eyebrows.”

1.4. Detective Mako asks that you no longer call him “Sharkbrows” no matter how much Avatar Korra does it.

1.5. Please only address Avatar Korra as “Korra”, “Avatar”, or “Avatar Korra” instead of whatever nicknames she tries giving herself.

1.6. No, we cannot address Avatar Korra as “The Most Badass Avatar Who Ever Lived.” Avatar Kyoshi still holds that title.

2. Please try to limit Naga’s treats to only per person.

2.1. Do not try to take away any of Naga’s toys/bones.

2.2. If you have recommendations on how to remove polar-bear-dog hair from clothes please contact the Grand Lotus.

2.3. Naga is permitted at least one hour of play time every day.

3. If you cannot find Avatar Korra search all nearby rooftops. Seaside cliffs and mountains are a good choice as well.

3.1. Checking Avatar Aang Memorial Island is also recommended.

3.2. If she still isn’t found, try asking Master Katara.

3.3. On further consideration, do not ask Master Katara. She can and will mislead you for amusement.

3.4. So will Meelo, Ikki, Rohan, and Jinora.

3.5. Detective Mako and Asami Sato will as well. Bolin most likely doesn’t know where she is, but will insist he does.

3.6. Naga is the best choice. She can track.

3.7. If Naga cannot be found either, contact Chief Tonraq or Senna. Or Master Tenzin.

3.8. If she still cannot be found, contact General Kuvira.

4. DO NOT GIVE AVATAR KORRA CATCUS JUICE.

4.1. Please do not challenge Avatar Korra with dares. She will do them.

4.2. Please do not participate in any drinking games with Avatar Korra. She will win.

4.3. DO NOT GIVE AVATAR KORRA CATCUS JUICE.

4.4. If Avatar Korra goes out in public while drunk, please contact her publicist. Master Tenzin has the number.

4.5. Drunk Avatar Korra can be persuaded to come home by mentioning Naga, or food.

4.6. If that fails call General Kuvira.

4.7. DO NOT GIVE AVATAR KORRA CATCUS JUICE.

4.8. On the rare chance that Avatar Korra gets her hands on cactus juice, please notify the local authorities. As well as General Kuvira, and the Avatar’s publicist.

4.9. After the last incident we’d like to remind everyone NOT to encourage drunk Avatar Korra to go streaking.

5. Under NO circumstances is Avatar Korra allowed to drive any vehicle.

5.1. President Zhu Li banned Avatar Korra from ever getting a driver’s license. Do not believe her if she tries to convince you otherwise.

5.2. Chief Lin Beifong herself promised to arrest anyone who helps Avatar Korra drive.

5.3. After the incident in Ba Sing Se, King Wu has permanently banned Korra from ever having a driver’s license.

5.4. Do not believe Asami Sato when she says she has “special permission” to teach Avatar Korra how to drive.

6. Do not try to interrupt Avatar Korra and Chief Tonraq while they’re listening to Pro-bending on the radio.

6.1. Please don’t encourage Avatar Korra to gamble on Pro-bending matches.

6.2. Please don’t encourage Chief Tonraq to gamble on Pro-bending matches.

7. For the last time, we are not allowed in Avatar Korra’s family home.

7.1. Please do not try to interrupt Avatar Korra’s time with her parents. It will not end well.

7.2. For the love of Agni, DO NOT try to interrupt Avatar Korra’s alone time with General Kuvira.

8. No, Avatar Korra will never stop saying “I’m the Avatar and you have to deal with it.”

8.1. Avatar Korra is also very fond of terrible puns and “dad” jokes.

8.2. Please do not tell Avatar Korra sex jokes. She’ll never stop repeating them.

8.3. Also don’t ask for sex stories unless you’re prepared to hear them.

9. The Avatar Fund is NOT to be used for Avatar Korra’s personal investments.

9.1. After the Varriwash incident, we’d like to remind everyone to carefully screen Avatar Korra’s mail for scams.

10. Avatar Korra would appreciate it if you didn’t mention her PTSD publicly.

10.1. Talking about Avatar Korra to ANY newspaper, radio show, or magazine will result in immediate termination.

[waterfire1848]

If you’re looking for prompts, I’d love to see more imagines where Hakoda adopts Azula and Zuko. If not, that’s alright. Just wanted to say I love your content(I’m new to tumblr and you were the first person I followed- a decision I do not regret in the slightest).

Thanks for the ask!!

Thank you so much for this! For the ask, for loving my content and for following me. Welcome to Tumblr! I hope you'll like it here. I don't have any incorrect quotes but here are some Hakoda adopting Azula and Zuko headcanons.

Canon:

Hakoda would know about the Agni Kai with Zuko and his father when it happens but he thinks it's just propaganda. Of course people would say that the Fire Nation is so horrible their own leader burned and banished his son. He only believes it when his son tells him about Zuko and the giant scar on his face. After the Boiling Rock, Hakoda does ask Zuko about his scar and tells him what happened.

Hakoda doesn't get to adopt Zuko officially because of Iroh, but he's okay with Zuko thinking of him as secondary paternal figure.

A few months after the war, Zuko got sick and Hakoda, being the only one in the Fire Nation, took care of him. It was the first time Zuko called him dad.

Azula would be a little more complicated. It's only after months of therapy that she finally accepts Ozai's abuse and starts to heal. She returns to the palace about a year after the war ends and that's when she meets Hakoda again. Similar to Zuko, she has no clue how to act around father figures. Because of this she often flinches when she thinks Hakoda is angry at her which makes him more careful not to raise his voice.

A few months after she returns to the palace, Azula continuously has nightmares because, while being her home, this place would still be a constant reminder of her abusive father, neglectful mother and her biggest failure. One day, when Hakoda is returning to the South Pole, he finds out that Azula snuck aboard and she asks him if she can come with him to the South Pole.

Of course, Hakoda can't turn her away so he invites her to the Southern Water Tribe. She learns to love the village, despite the cold, very quickly. Katara and Sokka are a little uneasy around her, but Hakoda asks them to give her a chance. Hakoda does send a letter to Zuko telling him his sister is in the South Pole so he can call off the search part. Zuko comes down and spends a week there to make sure Azula is comfortable. Not only do Azula and Zuko spend time with Katara and Sokka, eating Water Tribe food, getting into snowball fights and helping them rebuild the village but they also get to spend time with Hakoda and find out how a real father treats his children. When Zuko leaves to return to the Fire Nation, Azula thanks Hakoda for letting her stay and calls him her dad.

AU:

It's important to note that @ilikepjo24 came up with this AU which is that Hakoda finds out about Azula taking ADHD pills to help her study and takes them away. I'm just helping them expand it. Ask if you want to know any more.

Azula and Zuko are in foster care when they turn 11 and 13 (for obvious reasons) and are tossed around from family to family (some good and some bad). Ursa is out of the picture so she can't take them and Iroh wasn't granted custody by the courts so he can't take them. When Azula and Zuko are 14 and 16 they're placed with Hakoda and Kya.

Hakoda and Kya love them both but Azula and Zuko are hesitate about trusting them because of so many bad foster parents and they start betting on how long they'll last.

Slowly, Hakoda and Kya prove themselves to be good foster parents. They take the two on vacation, buy stuff for them, let Iroh come see them, and comfort them. Sokka and Katara also act as good foster siblings who try to help Zuko and Azula meet more people and get situated in their home.

However, Hakoda finds out Azula starts taking ADHD pills to help her study. He takes them away and Azula fails one of her finals. Terrified of how he'll react, Azula hides away at Ty Lee's house while sends Hakoda and Kya into a panic because they have no idea where their daughter is. Finally, Ty Lee tells Zuko she has her and Zuko tells Hakoda and Kya where she is. Kya goes to pick her up and takes her back to the house. Azula expects to be kicked out, for Hakoda to hit her or Kya to say she doesn't love her anymore, but her only punishment is no phone for a month and she had to come home right after school everyday.

Zuko and Azula both still worry that Hakoda and Kya will one day get sick of them and send them back to foster care so the parents decide to adopt them and officially make them their son and daughter.

[deathbycoldopen]

I finished the first season of the live action ATLA, and I have to say my reaction is… mixed.

I went into it determined to have an open mind, and there was definitely a good chunk that I enjoyed! For one thing, I love what they did with both Suki and Yue, taking advantage of the longer episode lengths to give them both lives and motivations beyond just “pretty girl that Sokka crushes on” (Suki obviously gets more depth in the og show during seasons 2 & 3, but Yue has always struck me as a rather one-dimensional character).

The best (if traumatizing) choice was to actually show the Fire Nation attack on the airbenders. Doing so gave a real emotional heft to Aang being displaced a hundred years with the weight of failing to prevent a past genocide, and the pressure of having to stop another without any idea how. Not only that, but it did a great job of indicating, right at the start of the show, that this was an adaptation indenting to transform what was fundamentally a kids’ show with complex themes into an adult series with the ability to really expand on that depth and complexity.

…and then it didn’t.

Oh, the show pokes at the repercussions of Iroh having waged a long and deadly siege agains Ba Sing Se, and it does a decent job at deepening the fuckery that is Zuko’s backstory. But so much of the more ambiguous or complex parts of the original have been flattened in this adaptation—and not in ways that can be explained by the compressed narrative. Instead, it feels like the sanitized story and characters are a direct result of a purity culture that demands all things black and white, never shades of gray.

Let’s look at Zuko, the villain-turned-hero with an iconic but bumpy redemption arc in the original series. Part of what makes Zuko’s story so goddamn compelling in the original is that he begins as a true villain, who does some horrible things and is led astray more often than not by his explosive temper; and yet his horrifying backstory and desperation for a loving family that never actually existed compel us to view him with some sympathy, even as he acts against our protagonists.

Yet in the adaptation, Zuko is consistently painted in a softer, kinder light than he was in the original. He has no hand in burning down the village on Kyoshi Island; he hears Aang out and even seems to consider Aang’s offer of friendship rather than immediately lashing out after the Blue Spirit reveal; he is notably more respectful to Iroh and loses his temper much less frequently and violently.

Even the change of Zuko fighting back against Ozai in the agni kai can be construed as him recognizing that Ozai is the bad guy, especially when it means that in order for his exile to make sense he has to defy his father again after he’s already been burned.

This is a pattern that is repeated with nearly all of the characters with any degree of ambiguity. Pakku is depicted as kind of a decent person who’s just being held back by his deference to tradition, rather than being pretty much an asshole regardless of whether he’s following tradition or not. Hahn is a nice guy who is in love with Yue but accepts her decision not to marry him, instead of a dick that sees her as a trophy and is more than happy to marry her despite her disinterest.

Sokka is a huge victim of this flattening of flaws. His early-show misogyny is entirely absent, making his stumbling with Suki a little odd and ungrounded, and his dismissal of Katara’s skills even more so. The narrative doesn’t allow him to be anywhere close to as boneheaded and stubborn as he is in the original—this version of Sokka would never angrily slash through the swamp despite the warning signs, or blatantly lie to Won Shi Ton and then even more blatantly steal from him.

Sokka isn’t even allowed the most understandable tactical mistake from the original show: using the air ship in the fight at the Northern Air Temple, and inadvertently delivering the Fire Nation’s greatest asset. That honor is given to a generalized “spies” that are distanced even from Sai himself.

If the heroes aren’t allowed to have flaws, the villains are even worse off, without anything that might make them sympathetic. Jet, who in the original sits in a similar in-between place as Zuko, is pushed firmly on the side of villain over the course of his two-episode arc. Instead of Jet fighting dirty against Fire Nation colonists who are nevertheless civilians, he bombs buildings in Omashu; it’s easier to denounce him when he’s hurting Earth Kingdom civilians with his tactics, rather than people who may or may not be complicit in the war. He’s even labeled a terrorist, an easy buzzword for a largely usamerican audience to point to and say “ah yes, that’s a bad guy.”

The main villains— Ozai, Zhao, and even the brief scene of Sozin— are ironically even more cartoonishly evil than in the animated show. Ozai and Sozin both declare their evil plans— out loud, with villainous aplomb— to use one major military movement as a distraction for another, even bigger movement. (Sozin’s plan at least made sense, in that the distraction was “leaked” intelligence rather than an actual deployment of troops. How the hell did Ozai have enough troops and a decent supply line to attack both the Northern Water Tribe and Omashu at the same time? And it’s not like the distraction actually served any purpose, since it’s explicitly stated several times that the separate nations don’t send aid to each other anymore.)

Ozai’s treatment of Zuko is even more abusive than in the original, especially with the aforementioned change where Zuko actually does fight back as ordered. His choice to burn Zuko and then later banish him then must be explained by Zuko showing compassion, a much more typically “evil” motivation than the more complex (though no less abusive) notion of Zuko dishonoring himself.

Zhao gets an even worse character lobotomy, which is impressive given that his original character is pretty unabashedly villainous. But rather than a devious, powerful, and ambitious commander looming over everything Zuko or Team Avatar does, this version of Zhao is cartoonishly incompetent. (It doesn’t help that the only thing I’ve seen Ken Leung in is Person of Interest, where he plays a similarly buffoonish character constantly in need of rescue. When held up against Jason Isaacs’ mesmerizing but intimidating voice in the original, there’s no comparison.)

Zhao is no longer a respected military leader but a backwoods commander who barely passed the exam to become an officer; his rise through the ranks isn’t due to military successes or a commanding presence but because Azula finds him easy to manipulate; cutting Jeong Jeong means that we don’t see Aang get the better of Zhao by playing on his temper and lack of control; even discovering the secret of the moon and ocean spirits seems more like blundering luck than actual determination and intelligence. You can’t take Zhao seriously as a threat in this adaptation, even when he’s killing the moon spirit and destroying the balance of the world— he’s a nuisance at best, with Azula as the real looming danger.

Disliking Zhao’s character changes might just come down to a matter of taste, of course. I’m always going to be more interested in intelligent, competent characters, whether they are heroes or villains. But it forms part of this pattern of flattening characters and plots and arcs, and brings me back to the fundamental question that kept hitting me over the head while watching the series.

Why?

Why make an adaptation? This is a question that comes up whenever an adaptation of anything is made: what does the adaptation bring to the table that the original did not? Often the answer to this question is money, but there’s usually an attempt to point to a different answer, if only to distract from the greed.

Sometimes the answer is simple— a translation, for example, is an adaptation made to reach a wider audience. Sometimes the answer is more complicated— changing Lord of the Rings from books to movies, as another example, took advantage of the music, acting, and visuals to pack more emotional punch than the books did.

I would argue, as I began to at the start of this post, that the benefit of adapting ATLA from an animated kids show to a live action series is the bucking of those “kids show” limitations. ATLA deals with a lot of serious, heavy topics that don’t get fully explored because they are too complicated and intense to be greenlit in a network show aimed at 10 year olds. In addition, ATLA (and particularly Legend of Korra after it) faced an uphill battle to portray some more sticky topics such as queerness, in part due to the time period when they were produced.

A live action show produced by Netflix seems to bypass all those hurdles, allowing for a darker and more socially progressive show than what the original was able to accomplish. But despite showing onscreen the destruction of the Air Nomads, the adaptation of ATLA seems more sanitized than the original, playing to the lowest common denominator in a way that the original never did, despite the latter being a kids show and the former ostensibly being for adults.

I came away from the new series with a bad taste in my mouth, even with some things that I really enjoyed, and I think this is the crux of why. The adaptation didn’t update the original; it stripped it of anything that might be deemed problematic and replaced it with a black and white worldview that is, in fact, antithetical to the themes of the original show.

After all, the creators seem to have reasoned, who would root for Zuko’s redemption if he actually needed redemption in the first place?

[the-genius-az]

Back at it again with the Ludwig XIV- I mean Azula absolutist fic

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The thick robes of the Firelord flew behind her as she marched down the cold halls of the Palace. Maids scattered and hurried out of Azula's way as quickly as they heard her heavy footsteps approach. On a good day, the Firelord might only lightly punish them for taking up space she so rightfully owned. And on a bad one...the public would get another execution to watch.

Azula stomped into Katara's bedroom with a loud call of the waterbenders name.

There was no answer, yet Azula could feel the irritated energy of her soon-to-be radiating from the windows.

Stepping onto the golden-railed balcony, Azula took a look around. And sure enough, Katara was leaning against the shimmering railing on the far edge of the tiled balcony, her face stubbornly facing away from Azula. Katara didn't even acknowledge her Lord. Azula bit back a scowl that threatened to crease her features before she stepped closer.

"Katara."

No answer. Not even an annoyed huff.

Azula glared as she stood next to her. Katara refused to cooperate even further. She was dead set on staring at the horizon of the city. Azula's eyes narrowed, the snarl finally engulfing her face as she loomed over the waterbender.

She was The Firelord. The most powerful being on the archipelago and even beyond the bounds of the borders. She, Azula, should be bowed down to, not ignored, and dismissed without a second glance. Her anger bubbled and burned her insides while she stared at Katara.

How dare she... Does she not care that Azula is Agni personified?! That Azula the Sun itself? Her inner flame raged as Azula grabbed Katara's face in her own crushing grip. Ice cold blue eyes met white-hot mad amber ones, each fighting for dominance over the other.

"I will not have this disobedience present in my Palace! You answer when you're called to. You are at my beck and call, and you will obey."

Azula stepped right infront of Katara, blocking any escape. Her anger heated the air around them, turning the warm evening into a blistering sauna.

"Or have you forgotten what happends when you refuse?"

Azula hissed out, her other hand gripping Katara's still healing wrist. The waterbender had snuck out of the Palace a while ago, determined to escape the power-hungry Azula. But she underestimated Azula's devotion and need for control.

A fully fledged search was carried out for weeks with Azula refusing even a minute of rest for her search parties. In that time, everyone suffered from Azula's nerves snapping, having a chance to get close and personal with her scorching fire. The Palace reeked of charred and burnt flesh for days after.

Katara was found in a insignificant coastal village trying to board a boat to the Fire colonies in an attempt to escape Azula. Safe to say, she failed and got immidiately taken back to the Palace.

After she was returned to her rightful place, she got branded by Azula's iron grip as soon as the Firelord had her back in her grasp. She now sported two big burns in the shape of a handprints on her wrists and sores down her entire body from Azula's harsh bedroom treatment.

"...what do you want? Here to give me more useless junk?"

"No."

Katara raised an eyebrow, clearly taken off guard at Azula's words. But...Azula only really interacted with her while trying to win her over with overly expensive gifts and to spend the night in her bed. What could she mean? The piercing glare of the Firelord's golden eyes sent a chill down Katara's spine. Whatever it was, Azula meant it seriously.

"I came here to put you under strict house arrest. You are not to step a foot outside your room, you are forbidden from talking to any of these peasants-"

Azula gestured out towards the maids scurrying around the Royal grounds, doing their chores as fast as they could lest they be met with the wrath of the Lord they served.

"-and you are to have constant supervision."

Kataras brows furrowed once the words settled in. Having guards follow her around the Royal Gardens was humiliating and annoying enough...and now they will guard every entrance her room...the complete loss of freedom that Katara so loved made her eyes widen in bewilderment as Azula's words sunk in fully.

"W-what...?"

Azula could practicaly smell Katara's turmoil. Oh, how she loved having this affect on people. The level of uneasiness and fragile calmness surrounding Azula's aura was strong. Strong enough to set off even the most cruel and stoic of politicians and ministers and convert them into sweating, stuttering messes.

The Firelord's perfectly manicured finger came to tip Katara's head backwards, the nail digging into the soft skin of her neck.

"I will know everything you do. Every move you make. Ever word you mutter. If you wish to help those low-lives, why don't you live like them as well?"

A dark, sadistic smile stretched across the previously harsh Lord's features, her sharp teeth glistened in the evening sun and making her appear all that more malevolent. Katara knew better than to speak again while Azula's hands were anywhere close to her neck. So she held her tonge.

Clearly taking Katara's silence as a win, Azula leaned closer to her ear, her crushing grip loosening around Katara's face. The Firelord leaned closer, her warm breath brushing the shell of Katara's ear. It felt less like a normal exhale and more like a warning from a dragon right before it spewed fire.

"I would think twice before refusing me again..."

Azula whispered in Katara's ear, her hand placed heavily on the others shoulder. There was no space left for arguing. With one last warning glare, Katara was standing alone on the balcony, left to listen to the lock on her door scratch and creak closed.

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Kinda hate how it turned out, but whatever

-Squid

Bro, I think you accidentally posted your fic here!

I love it, although it bothers me that Azula abuses her girlfriends, she wouldn't do it! She is so devoted that she would die before hurting them. 😭