#sokka is decent

[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.

[junotter]

Part 1 of my modern avatar au, the fire nation

[kittenmoth]

I dubbed this doodle "Sokka Likes Spicy Noodles" just so you all know.

[hadesisqueer]

Enough bender vs bender, Avatar vs Avatar scenarios. Who would win in a 1v1 fight, Sokka or Asami

[transboysokka]

Here’s another one that is So Canon To Me that I forget I’m not on the same page as everyone else about it:

Katara gets elected Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and Sokka pretty much never goes back

Let’s please give Katara something permanent to do oh my god. Aang is the Avatar, Toph ends up a cop, Sokka is involved in the running of Republic City. Can Katara please get another role other than Avatar’s Wife Who’s Also A Good Healer??

We’ve seen in the show that she’s a very inspiring leader with a huge sense of loyalty. It seems to me like she’d be a natural at politics and strategically a great choice to lead because of her relationship with the world’s other leaders. Also as the last Southern Waterbender and a great healer, she’d have a lot of respect in the tribe as a warrior and as someone also knowledgeable about spiritual matters.

She’s always had a strong connection to her people and her culture and she’s still living there during Korra. I think she trained to be chief under Hakoda and she and Aang and their family split their time between Republic City and the SWT at first. She probably gets elected a few years later and they live there more permanently, then when her term ends they focus more on RC for a while. I think when Aang dies she’s so happy to move back permanently, having moved away due to duty but her heart has always belonged in the South and its next generation of benders.

Sokka meanwhile… We’ve talked about his trauma. I made a post about this somewhere before I think he’s one of those guys that definitely prefers to visit back home than to spend time there permanently. The memories of losing essentially both his parents and being responsible for all his people’s survival… I don’t think he ever fully deals with those. He’s always had a more global outlook on life and I think his skills in engineering and diplomacy would be better used in the Fir Nation and eventually Republic City. I know we hear him called Chief Sokka in I think S3 of Korra but it’s always made way more sense to me that he would be appointed chief of the Water Tribe folks living in the United Republic, which would reconcile the role we see him in on its council.

Also with his disability later in life… the cold weather in the South would probably not be great for him at all…

I do see a lot of stuff about Sokka being chief post-canon and then Katara just kind of fades into oblivion and I mean we know why that is but consider this instead.. ^^

[lolo3h]

Yknow it’s so funny that the live action atla Netflix show was so mediocre that it inspired me to watch the original animated one and now I’m binging the series and slowly being dragged back into the fandom

[believenthlie]

“Get ahold of yourself, Zuko.”

[nomercifulpercival]

watching the new live action ATLA and actually i REALLY LIKE some of the changes to sokka.

he's not a lil sexist like he is in the animation but he still has Issues - he actively discourages katara from waterbending because he's so afraid she'll be caught and he seems to think Every Person is his responsibility. He seems both older and younger than show Sokka, he's less cocky because he's so insecure about his abilities but he also relies solely on his own abilities and keeps trying to talk himself up as the Big Leader and Protector of his tribe. It is crunchy good character actually.

his insecurity is what makes his relationship with suki so far actually interesting as well (i'm only halfway thru ep 2 tho so take this analysis with a lil salt). he starts by trying to relate to her as a Warrior and Protector but suki rebuffs him. Later she tries to relate to him by showing off her fighting skills (she is also more flawed in this version imo, which is fun. she doesnt know how to relate to people so she chokes the shit out of him) but this makes him more insecure because all his cockiness and self worth lies in protecting people and this girl is showing him up. both of their insecurities are getting in the way of forming a connection and i look forward to seeing how it's resolved.

He's less "I am the Man of my family since my dad left so i must Protect them even tho i'm just a kid really" and more "I must protect my people and if i fail they will die, therefore I am terrified of being anything less than the perfect leader and warrior"

both are interesting character concepts and i'm actually kind of hyped they changed it slightly, it makes me interested to see where theyre going with this.

[seyaryminamoto]

Fic-to-Art #33: Princess Jing Azula meets Mari

All prompt suggestions for this month were great... but I can't lie about how hyped I felt when this was the one that happened to take the victory.

I admit, there's always been a part of me that didn't really enjoy a lot of the "aunt Azula" or "uncle Sokka" content I saw in fandom, since it often felt like their personal lives were constantly sidelined so they could be the supporting characters to their siblings' very fulfilling families (while they often didn't get to have one of their own, and a thousand excuses were given for that, but ultimately it just felt like they'd be playing second fiddle to Zuko and Katara respectively).

I don't really feel that way about it in my own story for obvious reasons -- clearly, the story could not be more Azula and Sokka-centric if it tried :') therefore, their dynamics with their respective siblings, and their siblings' families, never really have cut across their own possibilities, whether to have families of their own or to exist for a bigger purpose besides just supporting everyone else around them.

Hence, the bond between Azula and Mari (and Sokka and Mari) have become quite valuable to me, especially after Sokka turned Azula into Mari's hero without Mari's awareness, through his stories about Princess Jing. With said stories, Sokka helped Mari accept her own firebending, and along with that, helped her learn who her aunt was long before she even met her. She won't actually learn that Azula is Princess Jing right away... but it will be thrilling for her to finally see blue fire directly, as portrayed above, and to meet a female firebender who can inspire her to shoot for the stars if she wants to.

As for everything else in this scene, weeeell... there's at least two important spoilers here that I suppose you guys might be happy to see :'D One might barely be a spoiler at this point. The other definitely is one because I'd constantly kept her role in the story hidden and secret, mostly because no one knew she was reeeally coming back, or in what capacity she would do that. You still barely know how she's ever going to wind up in the South Pole to witness Azula meeting Mari, worth noting :'D but now you know she will be there, nonetheless...

At any rate, hope you liked this piece! If you want to see its spiritual sequel, feel free to go right back to Fic-to-Art #9! And if you would like to participate in the creation of these pieces or just read Gladiator snippets 6 days before the chapter releases, support me on Patreon!

[hella1975]

can i say i love what you did with sokka like. so many hakoda adopts zuko fics just straight up ignore him or make his character all goofy but you rlly went into how he was feeling and it felt realistic. bc if i was him, i would be jealous of zuko too especially if i had it in my head that my dad abandoned me and then just picked up some other kid who I thought was better than me. he rlly was just a mess of emotions- did i know what he was gonna do ever?? no. couldn't tell whether he was gonna keep ignoring hakoda, cry, or just explode at him, and i think that unpredictableness rlly fits w him and the whole Teenage Boy Emotions he's got going on as well (bc im just saying he switched up from on zuko SO drastically like he went from hating him to crushing hard and if that just isn't teenage hormones and angst)

OMG THANK YOU FOR THIS I WANT TO KISS YOU like one of the few times ive had genuine rebuttal from taob by enough people that it's like A Thing (like literally only a handful but im a very insecure writer so it doesn't take much LMAO) is when hakoda sat sokka down and - god forbid - pointed out that the love he had for his actual son was different and incomparible to any love he might have grown for some stray FIRE NATION (<- feel like some people forgot the relevance that still has) kid. and like i had some people calling sokka 'annoying' or 'mean' or 'unfair' for his reactions but like?? im trying to write him as a real person here and i promise u most people in his scenario would've kicked off WAY more than he ever did lmao

[kstarlitchaotics]

Okay there is some concerns for me with the LA ALTA but all n all it looks promising I'm a bit hyped for it

And I don't care what anyone says unpopular opinion Zuko's scar looks good

[cripfaggot]

My masculinity is basically based on my dad, sokka, and hozier

.... and maybe ezio

[dmdumouchel]

I watched the first two eps of AtLA live action and I uhhhhhhdgtfgts

I have a lot of words

[wileycap]

So, uh, Netflix Avatar, huh? Yeah. I guess I'll make a really long post about it because ATLA brainrot has is a cornerstone of my personality at this point.

So.

It's okay. B, maybe a C+.

That's it.

Now for the spoilers:

The biggest issue with the Netflix version is the pacing. Scenes come out of nowhere and many of the episodes are disjointed. Example: Aang escaping from Zuko's ship. We see him getting the key and going "aha!", and in the next scene he's in Zuko's room. And then he just runs out, no fun acrobatics or fights, and immediately they go to the Southern Air Temple where he sees Gyatso's corpse, goes into the Avatar state, and then sees Gyatso being really cheesy, comes out of it, and resolves that conflict. Nothing seems to lead into anything. The characters don't get to breathe.

The show's worst mistake (aside from Iroh fucking murdering Zhao) is its' first one: they start in the past. Instead of immediately introducing us to our main characters and dropping us into a world where we have a perfect dynamic where Aang doesn't know the current state of the world and Katara and Sokka don't know about the past, thus allowing for seamless and organic worldbuilding and exposition, they just... tell us. "Hey, this is what happened, ok, time for Aang!" There's no mystery, no intrigue, just a stream of information being shoved down the audience's throats and then onto the next set piece.

The visuals are for the most part great, but like with most Netflix productions, they just don't have great art direction. It feels like a video game cinematic, where everything is meant to be Maximum Cool - and none of the environments get to breathe. It's like they have tight indoor sets (with some great set design) and then they have a bunch of trailer shots. It's oozing with a kind of very superficial love.

Netflix still doesn't know how to do lighting, and with how disjointed the scenes are, the locations end up feeling like a parade of sets rather than actual cities or forests or temples. As for the costumes, Netflix still doesn't know how to do costumes that look like they're meant to be actually worn, so many of the characters seem weirdly uncomfortable, like they're afraid of creasing their pristine costumes.

The acting is decent to good, for the most part. I can't tell if the weaker moments come down to the actors or the direction and editing, but if I had to guess, I'd say the latter. Iroh and Katara are the weakest, Sokka is the most consistent, Zuko hits the mark most of the time, and Aang is okay. I liked Suki (though... she was weirdly horny? Like?) but Yue just fell kind of flat.

The tight fight choreography of the original is replaced with a bunch of spinny moves and Marvel fighting, though there are some moments of good choreography, like the Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko (there's a million things I could say about how bad it was thematically, but this post is overly long already.) There's an actually hilarious moment in the first episode when Zuko is shooting down Aang, and he does jazz hands to charge up his attack.

Then there's the characters. Everybody feels very static - Zuko especially gets to have very little agency. A great example of that is the scene in which Iroh tells Lieutenant Jee the story of Zuko's scar.

In the original, it's a very intimate affair, and he doesn't lead the crew into any conclusions. Here, Iroh straight up tells the crew "you are the 41st, he saved your lives" and then the crew shows Zuko some love. A nice moment, but it feels unearned, when contrasted with the perfection of The Storm. In The Storm, Zuko's words and actions directly contradict each other, and Iroh's story gives the crew (and the audience) context as to why, which makes Zuko a compelling character. We get to piece it out along with them. Here - Iroh just flat out says it. He just says it, multiple times, to hammer in the point that hey, Zuko is Good Actually.

And then there's Iroh. You remember the kindly but powerful man who you can see gently nudging Zuko to his own conclusions? No, he's a pretty insecure dude who just tells Zuko that his daddy doesn't love him a lot and then he kills Zhao. Yeah. Iroh just plain kills Zhao dead. Why?

Iroh's characterization also makes Zuko come off as dumb - not just clueless and deluded, no, actually stupid. He constantly gets told that Iroh loves him and his dad doesn't, and he doesn't have any good answers for that, so he just... keeps on keeping on, I guess? This version of Zuko isn't conflicted and willfully ignorant like the OG, he's just... kind of stupid. He's not very compelling.

In the original, Zuko is well aware of Azula's status as the golden child. It motivates him - he twists it around to mean that he, through constant struggle, can become even stronger than her, than anyone. Here, Zhao tells him that "no, ur dad likes her better tee hee" and it's presented as some kind of a revelation. And then Iroh kills Zhao. I'm sorry I keep bringing that up, but it's just such an unforgiveable thematic fuckup that I have to. In the original, Zhao falls victim to his hubris, and Zuko gets to demonstrate his underlying compassion and nobility when he offers his hand to Zhao. Then we get some ambiguity in Zhao: does he refuse Zuko's hand because of his pride, or is it his final honorable action to not drag Zuko down with him? A mix of both? It's a great ending to his character. Here, he tries to backstab Zuko and then Iroh, who just sort of stood off to the side for five minutes, goes "oh well, it's murderin' time :)"

They mess with the worldbuilding in ways that didn't really need to be messed with. The Ice Moon "brings the spirit world and the mortal world closer together"? Give me a break. That's something you made up, as opposed to the millenia of cultural relevance that the Solstice has. That's bad, guys. You replaced something real with something you just hastily made up. There's a lot of that. We DID NOT need any backstory for Koh, for one. And Katara and Sokka certainly didn't need to be captured by Koh. I could go on and on, but again, this post is already way too long.

It's, um, very disappointing. A lot of telling and not very much showing, and I feel like all of the characters just... sort of end up in the same place they started out in. I feel like we don't see any of the characters grow: they're just told over and over again how they need to grow and what they need to do.

To sum it up: Netflix Avatar is a mile wide, but an inch deep.

[empyrangel]

How are people really acting like the general consensus is that the Netflix atla series is decent or even good??

Zuko’s backstory and desire for familial love is brought in way too early so he doesn’t have time to actually be a ruthless and cruel villain. Y’know, the thing that’s essential to his killer redemption arc? Because god forbid characters be unlikable.

One of Sokka’s main flaws was completely removed because god forbid characters be unlikable. And he’s not funny!

Katara is watered down to being just a little girl, her mature and nurturing side is gone. Her anger at injustice is also gone because god forbid characters have flaws.

Aang doesn’t act like a kid. He doesn’t try to run from his responsibilities while simultaneously feeling guilty about running from his responsibilities. Because god forbid characters have flaws.

You know, I’m seeing pattern.

“Yeah all the characters are completely different from how they are in the original, and the acting is flat, and the writing is shit, and the world feels dead, and the pacing is terrible because they insist on smashing like 4 important episodes together at the same time, and some of the best moments were completely cut out, and those that were adapted got butchered, and Aang doesn’t really even learn waterbending during the water season, but it’s still pretty good. I mean the cgi looks nice and it’s not the Shyamalan movie.”

Oh wow they say his name right five out of five stars 🙄. Cmon are our standards really this low?

[annaraksta]

finally got myself together and went to get a LIBRARY CARD!!!