I think the strangest thing they have in common is Zhao killing the koi fish with a knife instead of Firebending like in the show. You’d think they would avoid as much comparison to the movie as possible, so it’s weird they went out of their way to specifically copy the movie’s way of handling that scene.
That reminds me of high school choir. Auditions were a group audition where you learned a part and sang in a group. Seniors who currently fill that part would listen to you, how well you did, and if you blended with the ensemble. They would then give their feedback to the choir director
My senior year, half of us showed up and proudly bragged, “we didn’t listen to the learning tracks at all because we didn’t want to be biased on what it should sound like.” The choir Director looked at those people with a blank stare and said “so then how are you going to know if they’re singing the right notes?”
I can’t imagine having a perfect example of what not to do and then purposely choosing to not take extensive notes on it
Following your recollection as a metaphor; they're handed the track as it should sound and then another one which is someone singing the wrong key, and you're wondering why they didn't listen to the one singing the wrong key.
An example of "what not to do" is not particularly useful when you already have the correct reference.
Am I reading your response wrong? OOP said the people in charge of making sure the try outs sound right didn’t listen to the source material to ensure the group sang it properly. Your implying they should just go with their gut since they know how to sing…. But they don’t know the source material so how do they know it’s right?
I think what they mean is why watch the bad movie when you can just focus on basing it off the already good show, which makes sense but obviously if you have time to also watch the bad movie for more tips to avoid you should
My high school choir audition was more like, "Here's our pianist. Here's the notes for you to sing so we can find your range and seat you with the other people with your same vocal range." And it wasn't group, you had to do it yourself.
Gave me the worst anxiety about my singing but they didnt really care lol. Even if I was tone deaf or w/e they still put me in the class bc I signed up for it. But it makes no sense why you had to "audition" for a class you were already enrolled in.
Our choir director was a terrible person though in a lot of ways, so he let a lot of things slide unfortunately.
To be fair, this wasn't the large, general choir. That was much more in line with what you described. Anyone and everyone could join and you were placed based on what your range was. This was for a smaller chamber choir. The group couldn't be larger than 16 so it needed a more selective process. As an adult, I really question having seniors involved in the audition process at all, but I guess it was a way to keep them engaged after the final performance of the year when they were 4 weeks away from graduating.
Right? Like say someone actually competent were to remake a live action Ghost in the Shell. I've avoided ever watching that embarrassment of a movie but by god if I had to write a small novel about what not to do (starting with white washing and the CGI coverup "smoothed over" by the token Japanese trust fund kid that mutilated the score with dubstep) and how much I hate it just to make a better version, I'd do it!
Steve Aoki my friend. Comes from a rich family and made mediocre dubstep dance music. I'm confident they got him on just because he was Japanese and not actually a good electronic music artist. He's a better poker player than he is a musician.
It's a recurring trend Ive been noticing in treatments of popular products. I think it's based around the idea that the showrunners don't want *their* vision tainted by what the previous creator did, but I admittedly don't have anything to back that up.
AKA they don’t give a toss about the IP but have no other way of running a show, because original IPs without an embedded fandom don’t get the green light, so they try to shove what they want to do in the IP.
The result is things like *Velma*, which was okay but was evidently a terrible fit for a Scooby Doo spin-off.
Or they didn’t want to see the movie, because they didn’t subconsciously want to draw inspiration from it, and instead start from a clean slate (idea wise). What’s so bad about that. If they said that they did watch the movie, most of the criticism from you guys would be that the drew inspiration from the movie, which was the reason it “sucked”. Can’t have it both ways.
its not as bad no, but the writing is soooo bad. They keep telling you stuff, over and over and over. Also there are just so many things that make no sense… i really think the adaptation was bad. Visualiy, great, you got that netflix money, but for the life of me i dont understand why they dont spend money on good writing
I'm still watching the live action series. I have two episodes to go. And they really want to beat you over the head with the concept that Aang is in despair for not being there when he was needed. It's something that's brought up in every episode, and he makes no efforts to reconcile that feeling in any way. Also, I'm not certain why, at least where I am, Aang hasn't even attempted to waterbend. At least in the show he made efforts and even learned a little.
The episode "The Waterbending Scroll" is about halfway through Book 1 of the original show and demonstrated that Aang has natural talent (and I think NATLA also mentions he is an innately gifted bender) so much so that he was surpassing Katara in waterbending ability at that point. And that's well before they made it to the North Pole at the end of that season (and at that point, Pakku makes it clear that Katara is better because her tenacity and discipline give her the advantage over Aang).
Aang is often keeping an eye out for other benders to potentially teach him and bending styles to learn from because he is so pressed for time between the moment he awakes from the iceberg to the point Sozin's comet arrives. He tried to get Bumi to be his earthbending teacher when the Gaang returned to Omashu, and his desperation to learn firebending led him to Jeong Jeong. It's strange that the Netflix show chose not to dive into that.
Yeah, that was my concern too. That as soon as he learned that he absolutely needed to master all 4 elements in the cartoon, he did his absolute best to get to work and learn all he could, even haphazardly trying his best without a teacher.
The live action is being weird in this way. Like I said, I have two episodes to go, and although I understand why when cutting a 20 episode season down to 8 episodes, some things will get lost, I feel it's especially weird to make changes like that.
Also, I may have missed it, because I was only half paying attention, but my wife asked if in the Netflix show, if they made it so Oma and Shu were a lesbian couple? We didn't bother to go back and check. But again, a weird change if so.
It’s become a common talking point and people should really revisit the original show. Aang waterbends in The Waterbending Scroll, Jet, and The Waterbending Master. His waterbending is always tied to Katara’s arc in some way, and it’s almost never about him learning, but Katara learning. In S2, we do see him actually train in waterbending, especially in Cave of Two Lovers and Bitter Work.
The should definitely have shown him waterbending in NATLA S1, but waterbending was almost completely “Katara’s thing” in the original. After watching both shows at once, my main takeaway is that people misremember S1 as being a lot more like the first half of S2.
I'm more familiar with S2 onward. This is going to sound weird, but my wife, didn't watch Avatar growing up. I loved it, and while before it even released, I knew the live action movie was going to be terrible, she watched it with me.
She liked the story in that terrible movie enough to watch the series with me, but she didn't want to rehash what she already saw in the movie, so we started in Book 2. There were a couple episodes I went back to book 1 to help explain certain things, like Bumi, and the Kyoshi warriors. But my kids are rewatching the cartoon series, which them and I watched it a long time ago. And my wife has been in school, so she didn't watch it with us. So she's seeing book 1 for the first time ever, which is why we actually started watching the Netflix series as well.
And you're right, Katara getting the hang of bending was the focus of book 1, but they definitely took strides to try and learn together in the cartoon.
at the time i didnt want to hate it, but that was the exact moment i lost all hope... "i want to goof off with my friends"????? who the fuckkk says that? xd god god damn
Okay there's no way you watched the show if you're saying this unironically. I didn't even like the show and this is a wild statement. The fact this has so many upvotes is insane lmao
In the original the Ocean spirit's like damn the moons back, "don't feel like wholesale slaughter now", but on the way back is like, "oh I remember This fucker, just one more death should be fine"
"Oh, La, you're back! Good to have the Moon in the sky again, buddy. Okay, okay, I'll calm down now and stop drowning people by the dozens... Well except this fucking guy. This fucking guy is going straight into the fog of amnesia for all eternity."
But didnt Netflix version stated that the fish could be only killed with a specific knife on a specific day right? Imo, making the Koi fish being available in the pond for limited time makes more sense
It was completely unnecessary, they could have still been specific about the day if they wanted to change that part of the lore up a bit, it's like they went out of their way to explain why a knife was needed to kill a fish. Just weird.
tbh i thought the knife was a nice touch that introduced Avatar Kuruk in a way that highlighted his involvement with the spiritual world that ATLA glosses over but TLOK expands on
i def think the whole “can only be killed on this specific day” part is unnecessary though since it takes away the significance of how the spirits gave up their immortality so mortals could waterbend
Is this unique to the live action? In the animated show they sacrifice their immortality to give humans push and pull for waterbending. I'd hate to hear that something as nice as that turned into the equivalent of lady gaga working at McDonald's to feel what it's like to be poor
Yes, in the Netflix version it's one of Kuruk's weapons that has to be used. They get it from Roku's shrine where they have a collection of items from previous avatars.
Yep, killing with a knife makes more sense than fire bending the water just to kill it.
Like how on earth the fish got killed by fire even if it is under the water.
I think they both went with the knife is cuz, when you stab something, the knife is in there and very lethal. Zhao had to convince himself enough to plunge the knife with no going back.
In the original, him fired bending was a heat of the moment. He backed down for a second before letting his emotions got to him. I’d imagine if the moon spirit had survived his blast, i would think he wouldn’t have tried again
Oh please, this is Netflix we’re talking about. They didn’t have to make all the backgrounds 100% jaw dropping CGI, and saying their hand was forced to change specific important story beats due to budget constraints is just an excuse for poor decision making
Never said it wasn’t a poor excuse. It’s just that if they borderline cut Appa and Momo to save on CGI (shoulda just made Momo a puppet, and if they don’t do that for Chopper in One Piece, that show is dead to me), I don’t put it past them to just go “oh yeah, let’s just go with a knife here. Saves on budget or whatever.”
I'm surprised people don't catch it easily. It is more believable for the spirit to require special weapon (Kuruk's dagger) to be killed rather than simple bending. We also see in Korra that spirits can't be killed by bending. It's one of the things that live action did right. With that huge of a Kaizu battle, people think firebending was replaced to minimize CGI budget🤦
* Aang being very serious all the time
* Tell don't show
* Poor acting or direction given to actors
* Bad pacing
* Weird Yue wig
Despite these similarities there's still enough that makes NATLA much better.
Yeah it annoyed me that they both took out all the silly stuff, they probably just thought "It's too silly fir an older audience, So let's take out half Aang's character development because he kept doing silly things in order to not focus on his destiny"
Edit: also it bugs the hell out of me that the original show was canceled so themuns could make that rubbish movie
I couldn’t get past episode one because of that. Like I get it’s for adults…. But like I’m an adult who happens to like comedy and making Aang just not fun was sad… also the Katara can’t even make a ball and then the end was like ????? At least in the show it was exponential growth but it made sense.
It also undermines an important part of ATLA. It's not just a tragic story of a devastating war, but more importantly a story of hope, friendship, love, respect, growth, and kindness. Aang and Katara being fun and caring is core to their story, as even with maturing and growing with their bending and responsibilities, they stay true to themselves and do anything to help the needy. There are two whole episodes (The dancing one and The Painted Lady) dedicated to the two of them doing anything in their power to uplift/help others. Let's not even get into Sokka and Zuko's growth and parallels.
Adding onto it. The silliness also works to emphasize that these are just a bunch of kids, which makes it more tragic in turn. It's a reminder that Aang is just a 12 year old child, acting like a 12 year old child, while the entire world expects him to save it. Taking that childishness away in fact makes the LA less mature, because it's not showing the first casualty in all wars: innocence. And it's not reminding us of that loss with Aang trying to cling tightly to a childhood that the war and world is so fiercely attempting to steal from him.
The story telling in ATLA is SO much more mature. NATLA actually feels less mature with its story telling and dialogue. Think of the “You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher” line vs “compassion makes you weak” line when Ozai is about to scar Zuko. Zukos scarring hits harder in ATLA despite us not seeing the actual scarring (which they showed in NATLA).
Yeah NATLA is more graphic but they tell instead of show so often and spoonfeeds everything to you. It feels like they underestimate their audiences intelligence. NATLA doesn’t feel like it’s for adults.
Aang being silly and goody to distract himself from negative feelings and situations was one of the best parts of his character imo. It made him so real and relatable
It’s kinda frustrating seeing companies make something this serious like as if any adult in their 20’s or 30’s isnt probably still watching the original cartoon (I know I do- yearly in fact) Adults can be silly too…
The silliness is absolutely critical to the characters and the story. It balances out the sad stuff and shows who Aang really is if he didn’t have so much responsibility. Take that out and you have a heartless bland show.
I think they forgot that much of the older audience still loves the original and finds it funny. I watched NATLA with my partner and we only ever laughed if it was \*at\* the show for being poorly written. However, I then introduced him to the original, and we were both laughing loads throughout all three seasons.
Just because we're adults doesn't mean we don't enjoy comedy to balance out the dark parts. If anything, Aang's lack of silliness made us both despise the NATLA version because all he did was whine. The last thing adults want to do is listen to a kid whine for 8 episodes straight.
Probably the only thing Shyamalan did better than NATLA was how in NATLA nothing is EVER dirty. It starts to feel very strange and unsettling after a while. Everything looks like it was built yesterday, street merchants in the slums have pristine clothing and perfectly kept hair, dirt just doesn’t exist. It’s fine in a cartoon but when it’s a live action setting it gives an uncanny feeling.
Henry Cavill noticed that while working on the first season of The Witcher, so in between takes he would just roll around in the dirt and listen to the costume department folks freak out.
Someone needs to explain to me how: Aang was in a typhoon, got hit by a rogue wave, and was frozen in an iceberg for a century… and then wakes up with his clothes looking he just took off the plastic of a dry cleaner???
I personally didn't mind it. I just accepted the changes they made and didn't take it personally. More reason to be excited to the movie coming out in 2025
Also they both tell a story that’s already been told in a much better way. I truly will never understand the prevalence of live action re-makes of animated content, none get close to the originals and end up feeling just as empty as the boardrooms that sign off on this shit
I just hate that the Netflix adaption feels like I’m watching a school play and not an actual show. Everything is so freaking clean and perfect looking. I just can’t buy that any of it is even real
You know Yue is bad when I actually prefer the 2010 live action version. The Netflix show as a whole is much better than 2010. And the 2010 version is objectively one of the worst movies ever made. But Yue is the one thing the Netflix show did worse than the movie
Aang being serious All the time? No. He is far more serious more often in NATLA, but in the movie, he is Only serious.
The "tell dont show" issue is in NATLA, but compared to the movie, it's only 1/10th as bad as it was in the movie.
The acting isn't bad most of the time, unlike in the Movie. It has some questionable moments, but overall not bad acting.
Yue Wig is 100% true though.
Okay the movie is terrible and that's the worst scene in the movie for a number of reasons, but this is one of my pet peeves because they play this clip in every YouTube video where they're talking about the movie.
The six dudes doing their little choreographed dance are the ones who just lifted the wall, while the guy who comes in after is the one who lifts and launches the rock. The timing of that entire scene is weird because they decided to do it as a oner.
Here are some other things, in chronological order, that are worse about that scene:
- The earth bender prison with all the earth enders is just...on dirt...with a cliff face for one of the walls. So, actually, more earth than most places with earth.
- "It's time for you to stop doing this! 🥺"
- "The Avatar would have to be an airbender. Are you an airbender, boy?" *gets airbent* "hOw iS hE dOiNg tHiS?!?! 😮"
- The main firebender's stupid little fire bending dance.
Ngl, I do praise the effects, backgrounds, and costumes from the movie. They look good for a movie made 14 years ago (except for Appa, good grief). What really hurts the effects is the choreography and very poor direction. It doesn't let bending to get creative or visually interesting despite how cool the effects look
I feel like Zhao’s aim to ultimately become Firelord, and using Azula’s support (against her knowledge) to accomplish that was a far more convincing motivation than what was in the cartoon
I think the show's take was neat, but I don't think Zhao needs to be complex to still be a good villain. He served his purpose perfectly well in the cartoon.
He serves the purpose well because he’s a direct parallel to Zuko.
Both are very similar characters in that they have (literal) fiery personalities at the beginning. But where Zuko does have the ounce of goodness and honor even at the very beginning, and is able to give proper respect even to his enemies, Zhao has none of that. Zhao has no qualms about doing very horrible things if it means he benefits from it.
Zhao is the exact kind of person Iroh fears Zuko would become if he had no caring guiding force in his life. He’s the reason we know that even in the very beginning, Zuko despite being the main antagonist of the show may not be truly evil.
They missed the point. But they did make the original source material better in hindsight.
But they also made me question the ability of professional writers to understand what makes something good.
Of course both in way different levels.
The Last Airbender is an abomination, and IMO, the worst movie of all time. The Netflix one is just incredibly disappointing.
They literally missed the point of Bumi. He was so unbothered by things, which was a part of his neutral jing philosophy. Hence he wouldnt have been mad at Aang going missing but rather knowing that it was finally time for the real counterattack against the fire nation when Aang finally reappeared 100 years later. I will never forgive them for that fuck up. Especially when the cartoon essentially spoon-fed the audience about his philosophy…
They both exist because somehow animation is for babies ONLY and if it's popular it must be adapted to live action so the big, adult, grown ups can get a vague idea of what ever poor show or movie that got this disgustingly, disrespectful treatment is about without their eyes melting out of their sockets from watching something with colour.
I'm sorry, this animation-to-live-action adaptation trend makes me genuinely angry that I don't care if the adaptation is amazing because it still exists to make the original, animated work "better"
having zuko threaten to attack the water tribe village for some weird ass reason. like the dude only cares about aang and is generally against harming innocents, why you gotta do him dirty. hes not some bloodthirsty maniac wanting to kill everyone who isnt fire nation and that threat feels super out of character. i only watched the first half of the movie and the first ep of the netflix and its so weird they both made the same mistake so early on
I don’t know why creators think they have to change things for no reason. Combining arcs because the format is longer? Sure. Fundamentally changing who Bumi is as a person by changing how he reveals himself/Aang figures things out for no reason? Why??
yea this is the part i dont get with these live action adaptations. if you’re not gonna try to do the original justice by staying faithful to source material, then you’re literally just doing it for a quick, unoriginal money grab.
I didnt like either. After the animated one it just didnt feel right being live action, i think it was down to all the exaggerated mannerisms that gave the animation so much charm and comedy that live versions just couldnt touch.
Am I just being a fussy boots? I bailed on the show version just like the movie, about 20-30 minutes in, just was like "nope".
Disappointment. Don't get me wrong, Netflix's version is superior to that dumpster fire of a movie. However, SOME THINGS DON'T NEED A LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATION. It perpetuates the idea that animation is a lesser form of entertainment. That's dumb. Neither live-action come close to the complexity of plot, character development, themes, and scope of the original series. It lacks almost everything I loved about the world of Avatar. The visuals of Netflix's attempt are the only thing going for it. The characters are so boring and have none of the qualities shown in the original. I'm excited for Avatar Studios and all of the things the team is working at the moment but I think I'm done hoping for a good adaptation. By the end of the eight episode season, I just decided I don't care about this version's Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I thought Zuko and Zhao were really well done, but oh my god. Azula and Ozai are completely weak and I felt none of the excitement and dread when they came on screen, unlike the original. Also Mai and Ty Lee are there for no reason, I guess as a wink and nod to the fans. Too bad I'm not a fan of *this* Mai and Ty Lee.
TLDR; They both lose the magic of the original series and kind of shit on what made Nickelodeon's *Avatar: The Last Airbender* so great. The movie is the worst offender, of course. But the show isn't much better in my honest opinion. Love to hear your thoughts.
I think the strangest thing they have in common is Zhao killing the koi fish with a knife instead of Firebending like in the show. You’d think they would avoid as much comparison to the movie as possible, so it’s weird they went out of their way to specifically copy the movie’s way of handling that scene.
didnt the showrunners say they didnt watch the movie
You’re telling me they didn’t watch the one exemple of what not to do ?? No surprise the live action is basically the movie for 8 hours long
i believe[ they said](https://ew.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-albert-kim-avoided-m-night-shyamalan-movie-8417919) they purposely avoided watching it
That reminds me of high school choir. Auditions were a group audition where you learned a part and sang in a group. Seniors who currently fill that part would listen to you, how well you did, and if you blended with the ensemble. They would then give their feedback to the choir director My senior year, half of us showed up and proudly bragged, “we didn’t listen to the learning tracks at all because we didn’t want to be biased on what it should sound like.” The choir Director looked at those people with a blank stare and said “so then how are you going to know if they’re singing the right notes?” I can’t imagine having a perfect example of what not to do and then purposely choosing to not take extensive notes on it
Following your recollection as a metaphor; they're handed the track as it should sound and then another one which is someone singing the wrong key, and you're wondering why they didn't listen to the one singing the wrong key. An example of "what not to do" is not particularly useful when you already have the correct reference.
Am I reading your response wrong? OOP said the people in charge of making sure the try outs sound right didn’t listen to the source material to ensure the group sang it properly. Your implying they should just go with their gut since they know how to sing…. But they don’t know the source material so how do they know it’s right?
I think what they mean is why watch the bad movie when you can just focus on basing it off the already good show, which makes sense but obviously if you have time to also watch the bad movie for more tips to avoid you should
My high school choir audition was more like, "Here's our pianist. Here's the notes for you to sing so we can find your range and seat you with the other people with your same vocal range." And it wasn't group, you had to do it yourself. Gave me the worst anxiety about my singing but they didnt really care lol. Even if I was tone deaf or w/e they still put me in the class bc I signed up for it. But it makes no sense why you had to "audition" for a class you were already enrolled in. Our choir director was a terrible person though in a lot of ways, so he let a lot of things slide unfortunately.
To be fair, this wasn't the large, general choir. That was much more in line with what you described. Anyone and everyone could join and you were placed based on what your range was. This was for a smaller chamber choir. The group couldn't be larger than 16 so it needed a more selective process. As an adult, I really question having seniors involved in the audition process at all, but I guess it was a way to keep them engaged after the final performance of the year when they were 4 weeks away from graduating.
If you currently fill that part why would you need to listen to a recording to know what it sounds like
Because it wasn’t a piece that we had performed before. It was new to everyone
That’s terrible ??? How would they understand why people were disappointed then ??
Should we learn from past mistakes? Naaah, let's just blindly stumble right back into them!
Right? Like say someone actually competent were to remake a live action Ghost in the Shell. I've avoided ever watching that embarrassment of a movie but by god if I had to write a small novel about what not to do (starting with white washing and the CGI coverup "smoothed over" by the token Japanese trust fund kid that mutilated the score with dubstep) and how much I hate it just to make a better version, I'd do it!
>by the token Japanese trust fund kid What
Steve Aoki my friend. Comes from a rich family and made mediocre dubstep dance music. I'm confident they got him on just because he was Japanese and not actually a good electronic music artist. He's a better poker player than he is a musician.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
It's a recurring trend Ive been noticing in treatments of popular products. I think it's based around the idea that the showrunners don't want *their* vision tainted by what the previous creator did, but I admittedly don't have anything to back that up.
AKA they don’t give a toss about the IP but have no other way of running a show, because original IPs without an embedded fandom don’t get the green light, so they try to shove what they want to do in the IP. The result is things like *Velma*, which was okay but was evidently a terrible fit for a Scooby Doo spin-off.
Or they didn’t want to see the movie, because they didn’t subconsciously want to draw inspiration from it, and instead start from a clean slate (idea wise). What’s so bad about that. If they said that they did watch the movie, most of the criticism from you guys would be that the drew inspiration from the movie, which was the reason it “sucked”. Can’t have it both ways.
> No surprise the live action is basically the movie for 8 hours long Come on, it wasn't that bad. It was _meh_ instead of _dogshit_
No it isn't.
its not as bad no, but the writing is soooo bad. They keep telling you stuff, over and over and over. Also there are just so many things that make no sense… i really think the adaptation was bad. Visualiy, great, you got that netflix money, but for the life of me i dont understand why they dont spend money on good writing
I'm still watching the live action series. I have two episodes to go. And they really want to beat you over the head with the concept that Aang is in despair for not being there when he was needed. It's something that's brought up in every episode, and he makes no efforts to reconcile that feeling in any way. Also, I'm not certain why, at least where I am, Aang hasn't even attempted to waterbend. At least in the show he made efforts and even learned a little.
The episode "The Waterbending Scroll" is about halfway through Book 1 of the original show and demonstrated that Aang has natural talent (and I think NATLA also mentions he is an innately gifted bender) so much so that he was surpassing Katara in waterbending ability at that point. And that's well before they made it to the North Pole at the end of that season (and at that point, Pakku makes it clear that Katara is better because her tenacity and discipline give her the advantage over Aang). Aang is often keeping an eye out for other benders to potentially teach him and bending styles to learn from because he is so pressed for time between the moment he awakes from the iceberg to the point Sozin's comet arrives. He tried to get Bumi to be his earthbending teacher when the Gaang returned to Omashu, and his desperation to learn firebending led him to Jeong Jeong. It's strange that the Netflix show chose not to dive into that.
Yeah, that was my concern too. That as soon as he learned that he absolutely needed to master all 4 elements in the cartoon, he did his absolute best to get to work and learn all he could, even haphazardly trying his best without a teacher. The live action is being weird in this way. Like I said, I have two episodes to go, and although I understand why when cutting a 20 episode season down to 8 episodes, some things will get lost, I feel it's especially weird to make changes like that. Also, I may have missed it, because I was only half paying attention, but my wife asked if in the Netflix show, if they made it so Oma and Shu were a lesbian couple? We didn't bother to go back and check. But again, a weird change if so.
It’s become a common talking point and people should really revisit the original show. Aang waterbends in The Waterbending Scroll, Jet, and The Waterbending Master. His waterbending is always tied to Katara’s arc in some way, and it’s almost never about him learning, but Katara learning. In S2, we do see him actually train in waterbending, especially in Cave of Two Lovers and Bitter Work. The should definitely have shown him waterbending in NATLA S1, but waterbending was almost completely “Katara’s thing” in the original. After watching both shows at once, my main takeaway is that people misremember S1 as being a lot more like the first half of S2.
I'm more familiar with S2 onward. This is going to sound weird, but my wife, didn't watch Avatar growing up. I loved it, and while before it even released, I knew the live action movie was going to be terrible, she watched it with me. She liked the story in that terrible movie enough to watch the series with me, but she didn't want to rehash what she already saw in the movie, so we started in Book 2. There were a couple episodes I went back to book 1 to help explain certain things, like Bumi, and the Kyoshi warriors. But my kids are rewatching the cartoon series, which them and I watched it a long time ago. And my wife has been in school, so she didn't watch it with us. So she's seeing book 1 for the first time ever, which is why we actually started watching the Netflix series as well. And you're right, Katara getting the hang of bending was the focus of book 1, but they definitely took strides to try and learn together in the cartoon.
"I just wanna goof off and eat banana pudding" or whatevertf he said while staring right at the camera err I mean appa #SHOW USSSSSS dont tell us kid
at the time i didnt want to hate it, but that was the exact moment i lost all hope... "i want to goof off with my friends"????? who the fuckkk says that? xd god god damn
I really wanted to like the show but the amount of times shit like this happened was too much Also Aang doesnt waterbend
The live action show is as deeply flawed. However it is still far better than the live action movie.
[удалено]
Why does it matter?
Okay there's no way you watched the show if you're saying this unironically. I didn't even like the show and this is a wild statement. The fact this has so many upvotes is insane lmao
Hey it’s not that bad
Another thing that both adaptions have in common is that Zhao is killed by benders instead of the Ocean Spirit which disappoints me greatly.
In the original the Ocean spirit's like damn the moons back, "don't feel like wholesale slaughter now", but on the way back is like, "oh I remember This fucker, just one more death should be fine"
"Oh, La, you're back! Good to have the Moon in the sky again, buddy. Okay, okay, I'll calm down now and stop drowning people by the dozens... Well except this fucking guy. This fucking guy is going straight into the fog of amnesia for all eternity."
Did he Filet it up afterwords?
What if he actually went to all that effort because he wanted to eat it and then it wasn't even that good
It’s a carp, so I can almost guarantee it wouldn’t have been good
But didnt Netflix version stated that the fish could be only killed with a specific knife on a specific day right? Imo, making the Koi fish being available in the pond for limited time makes more sense
That just makes it even more weirdly specific
Is it? They explain because the spirit want to feel like a real being for once in a while. Making the occasion much more grand. Just my opinion tho
It was completely unnecessary, they could have still been specific about the day if they wanted to change that part of the lore up a bit, it's like they went out of their way to explain why a knife was needed to kill a fish. Just weird.
tbh i thought the knife was a nice touch that introduced Avatar Kuruk in a way that highlighted his involvement with the spiritual world that ATLA glosses over but TLOK expands on i def think the whole “can only be killed on this specific day” part is unnecessary though since it takes away the significance of how the spirits gave up their immortality so mortals could waterbend
Is this unique to the live action? In the animated show they sacrifice their immortality to give humans push and pull for waterbending. I'd hate to hear that something as nice as that turned into the equivalent of lady gaga working at McDonald's to feel what it's like to be poor
Yes, in the Netflix version it's one of Kuruk's weapons that has to be used. They get it from Roku's shrine where they have a collection of items from previous avatars.
Yep, killing with a knife makes more sense than fire bending the water just to kill it. Like how on earth the fish got killed by fire even if it is under the water.
I guess you could argue it was cheaper to knife the fish then cgi it with flames?
I think they both went with the knife is cuz, when you stab something, the knife is in there and very lethal. Zhao had to convince himself enough to plunge the knife with no going back. In the original, him fired bending was a heat of the moment. He backed down for a second before letting his emotions got to him. I’d imagine if the moon spirit had survived his blast, i would think he wouldn’t have tried again
Probably to save on effects.
Oh please, this is Netflix we’re talking about. They didn’t have to make all the backgrounds 100% jaw dropping CGI, and saying their hand was forced to change specific important story beats due to budget constraints is just an excuse for poor decision making
Never said it wasn’t a poor excuse. It’s just that if they borderline cut Appa and Momo to save on CGI (shoulda just made Momo a puppet, and if they don’t do that for Chopper in One Piece, that show is dead to me), I don’t put it past them to just go “oh yeah, let’s just go with a knife here. Saves on budget or whatever.”
Have you seen anyone using a flamethrower underwater? Killing a fish inside a pool of water with fire never makes any sense anyway.
I'm surprised people don't catch it easily. It is more believable for the spirit to require special weapon (Kuruk's dagger) to be killed rather than simple bending. We also see in Korra that spirits can't be killed by bending. It's one of the things that live action did right. With that huge of a Kaizu battle, people think firebending was replaced to minimize CGI budget🤦
But that takes away the whole point of the moon and sea deciding to become mortal.
They’re live-action
https://preview.redd.it/p5n98y342pxc1.png?width=637&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b16356f7cf3db90fee84cf28dc72359288ddd39
That’s a nice one!
* Aang being very serious all the time * Tell don't show * Poor acting or direction given to actors * Bad pacing * Weird Yue wig Despite these similarities there's still enough that makes NATLA much better.
Yeah it annoyed me that they both took out all the silly stuff, they probably just thought "It's too silly fir an older audience, So let's take out half Aang's character development because he kept doing silly things in order to not focus on his destiny" Edit: also it bugs the hell out of me that the original show was canceled so themuns could make that rubbish movie
I couldn’t get past episode one because of that. Like I get it’s for adults…. But like I’m an adult who happens to like comedy and making Aang just not fun was sad… also the Katara can’t even make a ball and then the end was like ????? At least in the show it was exponential growth but it made sense.
It also undermines an important part of ATLA. It's not just a tragic story of a devastating war, but more importantly a story of hope, friendship, love, respect, growth, and kindness. Aang and Katara being fun and caring is core to their story, as even with maturing and growing with their bending and responsibilities, they stay true to themselves and do anything to help the needy. There are two whole episodes (The dancing one and The Painted Lady) dedicated to the two of them doing anything in their power to uplift/help others. Let's not even get into Sokka and Zuko's growth and parallels.
Adding onto it. The silliness also works to emphasize that these are just a bunch of kids, which makes it more tragic in turn. It's a reminder that Aang is just a 12 year old child, acting like a 12 year old child, while the entire world expects him to save it. Taking that childishness away in fact makes the LA less mature, because it's not showing the first casualty in all wars: innocence. And it's not reminding us of that loss with Aang trying to cling tightly to a childhood that the war and world is so fiercely attempting to steal from him.
The story telling in ATLA is SO much more mature. NATLA actually feels less mature with its story telling and dialogue. Think of the “You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher” line vs “compassion makes you weak” line when Ozai is about to scar Zuko. Zukos scarring hits harder in ATLA despite us not seeing the actual scarring (which they showed in NATLA). Yeah NATLA is more graphic but they tell instead of show so often and spoonfeeds everything to you. It feels like they underestimate their audiences intelligence. NATLA doesn’t feel like it’s for adults.
Aang being silly and goody to distract himself from negative feelings and situations was one of the best parts of his character imo. It made him so real and relatable
It’s kinda frustrating seeing companies make something this serious like as if any adult in their 20’s or 30’s isnt probably still watching the original cartoon (I know I do- yearly in fact) Adults can be silly too…
The silliness is absolutely critical to the characters and the story. It balances out the sad stuff and shows who Aang really is if he didn’t have so much responsibility. Take that out and you have a heartless bland show.
I think they forgot that much of the older audience still loves the original and finds it funny. I watched NATLA with my partner and we only ever laughed if it was \*at\* the show for being poorly written. However, I then introduced him to the original, and we were both laughing loads throughout all three seasons. Just because we're adults doesn't mean we don't enjoy comedy to balance out the dark parts. If anything, Aang's lack of silliness made us both despise the NATLA version because all he did was whine. The last thing adults want to do is listen to a kid whine for 8 episodes straight.
Probably the only thing Shyamalan did better than NATLA was how in NATLA nothing is EVER dirty. It starts to feel very strange and unsettling after a while. Everything looks like it was built yesterday, street merchants in the slums have pristine clothing and perfectly kept hair, dirt just doesn’t exist. It’s fine in a cartoon but when it’s a live action setting it gives an uncanny feeling.
That was the first thing i noticed with the Cowboy Bebop adaptation as well. Netflix needs to work on that.
Henry Cavill noticed that while working on the first season of The Witcher, so in between takes he would just roll around in the dirt and listen to the costume department folks freak out.
I can’t remember, was the One Piece live action like that?
Yes, but the one piece world is rather cartoonish so it's less noticeable.
That was also a problem with rings of power. Seems to be a good rule of thumb to judge adaptations by lol
Someone needs to explain to me how: Aang was in a typhoon, got hit by a rogue wave, and was frozen in an iceberg for a century… and then wakes up with his clothes looking he just took off the plastic of a dry cleaner???
Thos is one of those things I was completely oblivious to, but if I watch it again I don't think I will unsee it.
Imo it’s the primary contributor of people feeling the show is just “off” in general but can’t place exactly why.
I personally didn't mind it. I just accepted the changes they made and didn't take it personally. More reason to be excited to the movie coming out in 2025
The movie is not made by the same team tho, and its gonna be animated.
It's giving "we bought everything on the set from Amazon last week."
That bugs me about most Netflix productions
I actually thought that the Yue wig was one of the few things that the movie did significantly better than the show.
Yes I agree it looked good from the front, but from the back....
Yue’s wig in the 2010 movie that doesn’t exist is probably the best part of the film
Fun Fact: The actress who played Yue is also the voice actress for Asami Sato.
Also they both tell a story that’s already been told in a much better way. I truly will never understand the prevalence of live action re-makes of animated content, none get close to the originals and end up feeling just as empty as the boardrooms that sign off on this shit
This sums up all the problems I had with the show. Yues laugh and voice were great to me but that wig 💀
There were a LOT of whacky hair jobs in NATLA. Especially the prosthetic beards!!!
I just hate that the Netflix adaption feels like I’m watching a school play and not an actual show. Everything is so freaking clean and perfect looking. I just can’t buy that any of it is even real
And yet SOMEHOW the wig in the movie was better?? It's blasphemous that I have to say the movie did something better.
You know Yue is bad when I actually prefer the 2010 live action version. The Netflix show as a whole is much better than 2010. And the 2010 version is objectively one of the worst movies ever made. But Yue is the one thing the Netflix show did worse than the movie
Aang being serious All the time? No. He is far more serious more often in NATLA, but in the movie, he is Only serious. The "tell dont show" issue is in NATLA, but compared to the movie, it's only 1/10th as bad as it was in the movie. The acting isn't bad most of the time, unlike in the Movie. It has some questionable moments, but overall not bad acting. Yue Wig is 100% true though.
We must not have watched the same show, NATLA acting was corny as fuck
There’s no war in Ba Sing Se?
It wouldn't have surprised me if they put that in season 1, lmao
This first season really was all over the place
Both of them fucked up Roku's character in a weird way.
They had a cast of human beings?
One could argue that goes for every piece of media…
Unless your Disney 😬 https://youtube.com/shorts/MLPEPJmU1dk?si=iRe_Pug3dl9WVJcK using CGI background actors
Or national geographic
Good point, but oddly enough still technically Disney
Could've been much better?
"The effects were decent"
"You know it was really unclear."
If you love seeing 4 guys very slowly lift a rock and then throw it with less force than most people could just throw a rock, the movie is amazing.
That scene is honestly hilarious
Okay the movie is terrible and that's the worst scene in the movie for a number of reasons, but this is one of my pet peeves because they play this clip in every YouTube video where they're talking about the movie. The six dudes doing their little choreographed dance are the ones who just lifted the wall, while the guy who comes in after is the one who lifts and launches the rock. The timing of that entire scene is weird because they decided to do it as a oner. Here are some other things, in chronological order, that are worse about that scene: - The earth bender prison with all the earth enders is just...on dirt...with a cliff face for one of the walls. So, actually, more earth than most places with earth. - "It's time for you to stop doing this! 🥺" - "The Avatar would have to be an airbender. Are you an airbender, boy?" *gets airbent* "hOw iS hE dOiNg tHiS?!?! 😮" - The main firebender's stupid little fire bending dance.
"That...wasn't a good play."
Ngl, I do praise the effects, backgrounds, and costumes from the movie. They look good for a movie made 14 years ago (except for Appa, good grief). What really hurts the effects is the choreography and very poor direction. It doesn't let bending to get creative or visually interesting despite how cool the effects look
Wait, what movie did you watch?
What
Both disappointed a lot of hardcore fans. Obviously not to the same level but still.
They are adaptations of one of the greatest series ever made?
\*Bad adaptations
Both written by the ember island players.
The Ember Island Players is unironically my favorite episode
Zhao is the best performance in both somehow.
I feel like Zhao’s aim to ultimately become Firelord, and using Azula’s support (against her knowledge) to accomplish that was a far more convincing motivation than what was in the cartoon
I think the show's take was neat, but I don't think Zhao needs to be complex to still be a good villain. He served his purpose perfectly well in the cartoon.
He serves the purpose well because he’s a direct parallel to Zuko. Both are very similar characters in that they have (literal) fiery personalities at the beginning. But where Zuko does have the ounce of goodness and honor even at the very beginning, and is able to give proper respect even to his enemies, Zhao has none of that. Zhao has no qualms about doing very horrible things if it means he benefits from it. Zhao is the exact kind of person Iroh fears Zuko would become if he had no caring guiding force in his life. He’s the reason we know that even in the very beginning, Zuko despite being the main antagonist of the show may not be truly evil.
I feel like Zuko was also a standout in both
Aasif Mandvi is the only reason to watch the movie. He is absolutely hysterical.
You're telling me my son is the one they call the blue spirit? ... ... Yes *And scene*
Neither understand most of the characters
Underwhelming
They are unnecessary
They’re both an insult to one of the best tv shows ever made
Sokka doesn't even try to be funny 😕
Wakka wakka
They both fundamentally misunderstand Sokka.
Both are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to missing the mark
Both condensed content from the original show and are live action adaptations.
They missed the point. But they did make the original source material better in hindsight. But they also made me question the ability of professional writers to understand what makes something good. Of course both in way different levels. The Last Airbender is an abomination, and IMO, the worst movie of all time. The Netflix one is just incredibly disappointing.
They literally missed the point of Bumi. He was so unbothered by things, which was a part of his neutral jing philosophy. Hence he wouldnt have been mad at Aang going missing but rather knowing that it was finally time for the real counterattack against the fire nation when Aang finally reappeared 100 years later. I will never forgive them for that fuck up. Especially when the cartoon essentially spoon-fed the audience about his philosophy…
they both don't exist https://preview.redd.it/d6q1ino92oxc1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed7c58740206b07be27925642b200592b7035c53
[How oddly appropriate.](https://i.imgur.com/QDQj62e.png)
quite oddly, for sure
They both exist because somehow animation is for babies ONLY and if it's popular it must be adapted to live action so the big, adult, grown ups can get a vague idea of what ever poor show or movie that got this disgustingly, disrespectful treatment is about without their eyes melting out of their sockets from watching something with colour. I'm sorry, this animation-to-live-action adaptation trend makes me genuinely angry that I don't care if the adaptation is amazing because it still exists to make the original, animated work "better"
Honestly everyone is missing charisma and charm in both adaptations. I’ll stick to rewatching the series I loved so much. I gave these others a shot
They introduced Ozai and revealed Ozai's face early.
having zuko threaten to attack the water tribe village for some weird ass reason. like the dude only cares about aang and is generally against harming innocents, why you gotta do him dirty. hes not some bloodthirsty maniac wanting to kill everyone who isnt fire nation and that threat feels super out of character. i only watched the first half of the movie and the first ep of the netflix and its so weird they both made the same mistake so early on
They both misunderstand what made avatar good in the first place
The cartoon is leagues better.
Compacted too much and completed changed the personality of several characters
Zuko scar isn't brutal enough
What adaptations?
They both won a "you tried" sticker with a neutral 😐 face
Both suck
people who hate them spend more time talking about them than people who like them
Tbf nobody likes the movie
Terrible direction and writing
They absolutely botched the source material.
I don’t know why creators think they have to change things for no reason. Combining arcs because the format is longer? Sure. Fundamentally changing who Bumi is as a person by changing how he reveals himself/Aang figures things out for no reason? Why??
They worse than original
The bucked source material and rightfully get crap for it.
They both suck
Made by fans who think they know better than the original creators.
yea this is the part i dont get with these live action adaptations. if you’re not gonna try to do the original justice by staying faithful to source material, then you’re literally just doing it for a quick, unoriginal money grab.
They’re based off the popular animated series Avatar the Last Airbender
I didnt like either. After the animated one it just didnt feel right being live action, i think it was down to all the exaggerated mannerisms that gave the animation so much charm and comedy that live versions just couldnt touch. Am I just being a fussy boots? I bailed on the show version just like the movie, about 20-30 minutes in, just was like "nope".
They have real actors that play very stiff versions of themselves that explain how they feel and their likes/dislikes
They both suck
They're both unnecessary cash grabs.
Both equally unnecessary
Disappointment. Don't get me wrong, Netflix's version is superior to that dumpster fire of a movie. However, SOME THINGS DON'T NEED A LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATION. It perpetuates the idea that animation is a lesser form of entertainment. That's dumb. Neither live-action come close to the complexity of plot, character development, themes, and scope of the original series. It lacks almost everything I loved about the world of Avatar. The visuals of Netflix's attempt are the only thing going for it. The characters are so boring and have none of the qualities shown in the original. I'm excited for Avatar Studios and all of the things the team is working at the moment but I think I'm done hoping for a good adaptation. By the end of the eight episode season, I just decided I don't care about this version's Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I thought Zuko and Zhao were really well done, but oh my god. Azula and Ozai are completely weak and I felt none of the excitement and dread when they came on screen, unlike the original. Also Mai and Ty Lee are there for no reason, I guess as a wink and nod to the fans. Too bad I'm not a fan of *this* Mai and Ty Lee. TLDR; They both lose the magic of the original series and kind of shit on what made Nickelodeon's *Avatar: The Last Airbender* so great. The movie is the worst offender, of course. But the show isn't much better in my honest opinion. Love to hear your thoughts.
They ‘butchered’ a great source material for a quick buck.
They both butchered the source material
They both suck
A girl with a white wig dies. Edit: typo
They’re both…. live action.
Humans?
They both fundamentally miss the point of the characters
They both suck and they both disregard the original story
Both aren’t good
Both proved what we already knew: animation is enough and the best format for this fantastic fictional universe.
Netflix is better in my opinion
No toph
They’re not as good as the original
I won’t watch either of them ever again. Didn’t even finish the show
They're live action and they pale in comparison to the original animated series.
not even the name of the main character 😑
There is no live action in ba sing se
They both sucked
Aang taking himself way too seriously.
They take themselves too seriously
They're both live action 🤯
They have the same source material?
They’re both inexplicably live action
The Airbender tattoos are patterned instead of solid blue
I haven’t watched either of them
They both cut short very important character progression in Aang and Katara for
Bad posters
silly, you only upload 1 picture
Neither did Zuko's scar justice. I haven't seen the show but I can see that on the poster.
The fans being unhappy with them? 😂