Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art Of Missing The Point

bring H like fire till I go under on for later SS like me you hair like so here we are after years of wait it's finally time to talk about the liveaction Avatar The Last bartender or the second liveaction one I should say this show has been in the works for so long that for a while it seemed like it was never going to get there it's kind of funny because I just made an entire video about the Percy Jackson series on Disney plus a franchise that had a shockingly similar path to Avatar both our beloved Source material that started in 2005 and got a big budget liveaction adaptation in 2010 starting a movie franchise that ended up being a huge flop and that as a result was never finished and now 14 years later after over a decade in limbo both franchises were picked up by a big streaming service to get a new rebooted liveaction adaptation this time in the form of a high budget TV series developed by the creators of the original promising to be more faithful to the source material and to be the much needed redo of the previous disappointments that were the movies it's the exact same story with the exact same timeline but Avatar is an even bigger case than Percy Jackson if you ask me because not only is the source material largely regarded as the greatest animated series of all time many would also put it in the conversation as one of the greatest TV shows of all time period the original series is nothing short of legendary it is one of my favorites I love it even more as an adult than I did as a kid and I think that is the case for millions of people we all had our hearts broken in 2010 with the M Night Shyamalan movie adaptation which to this day is still considered by most people to be one of the worst movies in the history of Cinema and uh yeah this movie is horrible it's embarrassing I tried to rewatch for this video and I couldn't get through it it's just awful between the whitewashing of the main characters the cringy writing the complete misunderstanding of the lore the boring action and the fact that the characters names are being pronounced wrong the whole movie is just I everything went wrong with this thing I still find it impressive how they managed to make it this bad so naturally after that disaster there was a lot of pressure on the Flix not to this one up to they had a lot on their hands here and making this adaptation was always going to be a bit of a risk and I think they knew that because in case you don't remember this show has been in the works for a very very long time I would like to remind you that Netflix officially announced the Avatar liveaction Series in September of 2018 all almost 6 years ago they took their sweet ass time to make this thing and a 2-year long pandemic probably didn't help they put a lot of resources into this show you can tell they were banking on it becoming a massive hit and I was kind of nervous about this adaptation if I'm being completely honest as a gigantic fan of the source material it made me kind of anxious especially after it was announced in August of 2020 that the original creators of avatar Brian K and Michael Dante de Martino ended up leaving the project over creative differences that was a huge red flag and not only did they leave they later completely disowned this new adaptation saying that whatever we were about to see was far from the show they intended to make so yeah that that kind of freaked me out a little and after that the show moved forward with a lot of secrecy so we didn't get any real news until a few months ago when we got the first official photos it was a long period of anticipation it felt like it was never going to end and so finally on February 22nd 2024 after 5 and a half years of wait avatar the Last air bender finally came out and it is fine it's it's all right it's okay the show is kind of a mixed bag I had a very strange experience watching this reboot for a number of different reasons we're going to talk about in a little bit but as an overall opinion of the show for me the best way I have to describe it would be similar to a headline I saw passing online when the show came out and it would be this this show is not as bad as I feared but it also is not nearly as good as I hoped it's like somewhere in the middle I do think there is a lot to like about this adaptation there are so many things to praise but I also think a lot of it just doesn't really work there are some decisions and changes made with the story that I just flat out don't understand and just don't really like some of it kind of pissed me off to be completely honest with you like some of the direction they took with this show just doesn't make sense and I feel like I need to talk about it because it's been bothering me ever since I watched it oh and I know so many of you are about to ask yes the liveaction Avatar series is a much much much better show than the Percy Jackson series it's not even close it is an infinitely better made show on almost every level imaginable and also it's infinitely more entertaining and fun let's put that to bed right now Percy Jackson is very far behind they're not even on the same playing field but it doesn't mean Avatar didn't have its load of issues because oh boy and I'm going to be hard on it because the original means a lot to me and this adaptation had a lot of work to do to justify the necess necessity of its own existence like if you're going to make an adaptation of what is considered to be one of the greatest television series of all time you better make a point of proving it was worth it so in case you're not familiar with Avatar and its lore let me give you a quick introduction avatar the Last air bender takes place in a world where some people are gifted with the power of bending the magical ability to control one of the four elements water Earth Fire and Air as a result the people of the world Benders and non-benders alike live in large communities and cultures formed on the principles of the four elements the great territories of the world are the water tribes the air temples the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation for centuries these four territories lived in Harmony and peace until one day the fire lord became consumed by his greed believing it was the time for the Fire Nation to rise he decided to invade and conquer the rest of the world and he declared war on the other nations the only person capable of stopping this war and saving the world was a great hero known as the Avatar a Divine entity and the only being capable of bending all four of the elements however When The War Began at the time he was needed the most the Avatar disappeared a 100 years later the Fire Nation has managed to conquer most of the world and they rule over the people in a tyrannic rign they have wiped out the entirety of the air temples and their people and the other nations have mostly bent the knee the world has lost all hope and few can resist the might of the fire lord and his army that is until one day deep in the Villages of the Southern water tribe two teenage siblings named Saka and qara Venture into the infinite land of ice surrounding them and they make a shocking Discovery there hidden Frozen in a giant orb of ice they find Ang a 12-year-old boy from an ancient air Temple the last living air bender and the only threat to the Fire Nation he is the only one who can end the war because Ang is none other than The Reincarnation of the avatar this story is fire no pun intended maybe intended a little bit the lore of Avatar is just crazy good and so original seriously I don't even have the words to describe how in love I am with this story and its characters it's all just so creative and fun and it's so vast that you can tell an insane amount of stories in this universe I was quite nervous but curious to see how they would choose to adap this tale because the people behind the show had been very clear prior to its release that this version of the story was more of a remix of the original rather than a onetoone adaptation which is needed because of the format but I was still waiting to see how different it was going to be and they do not waste any time to show you right off the bat this remake starts by making pretty significant changes to the story it immediately lets you know it's going to be doing its own thing the opening sequence with the Earth Bender was cool it was mostly there to show off what the bending was going to look like but then we jumped to another point and we realized most of the pilot is Ang's back story telling us the events of the day he disappeared that was already a pretty unexpected change for me and not only that this version establishes that Ang got stuck in a storm and disappeared for 100 years after he left the air Temple to clear his head because he had just been told by his teacher that he was the Avatar and he didn't know how to process it now that is sort of similar to what happened in the original except for a very important detail in the original Ang wasn't going on a sky bison ride to clear his head he was running away he could not handle the pressure of being the Avatar and so he left he ran away he ran and in doing so he got stuck in a storm and out of survival had to put himself into ice and he stayed there for a 100 years it's a pretty big difference for his character moving forward so I'm not sure I fully understand what the decision was here but yeah also we the audience do not find that out from the jump in the original series you get to meet Ang when qara and Saka find him in the ice and so for a while even though you know he's the Avatar you don't actually know why and how Ang disappeared you don't know why he's been gone for 100 years and you don't know why he is found in the ice 100 years later and he doesn't really talk about it it's only later on that you find out he's being secretive about his disappearance because he's ashamed that he ran away from his responsibilities it's a very important element of his character so the fact that the show is so quick to erase that made me very nervous but we'll get back to that the rest of the pilot mostly follows the events of the cartoon Ang wakes up he is brought back to the Village by qara and Saka but unfortunately Prince Z uko the firstborn son of the fire lord finds them and he threatens to kill everyone in the village which leads Ang to surrender himself peacefully to protect the water tribe he is held prisoner on Zuko's warship qara feels that letting him go like that is wrong so she convinces Saka to go save him which they do they then leave the water tribe with Ang to help him on his journey to master the four elements and end the war so yeah the pilot shows that despite having changes the show does want to remain faithful to the core of the story and I think there are ways where they definitely succeed in doing that but in other ways I just don't really understand why they decided to change certain things not because I think it had to be exactly the same but because the changes they made don't exactly make sense for the characters moving forward so yeah right off the bat the show is a mixed bag some things work others not really I have a lot of issues with the show but let's start by talking about what I liked to start off the visuals are really good yes the CGI is kind of Hit or Miss depends on the scene but the way they chose to bring this universe to life was a total win for me they made the world as visually accurate to the cartoon as humanly possible from the set designs the cities the creatures everything looks like the cartoon brought to life like you can tell there was a colossal amount of effort put into the style of the show into preserving and capturing the visual identity of the source material and I can only applaud it it's really impressive seeing things like omashu the northern water tribe all of those big locations from the cartoon genuinely left me in awe of how similar they managed to make it look the action is also rad the fight scenes are so much fun all of them are really well made the choreography is solid the bending looks cool as the battles are just crazy I don't have any criticism there that wouldn't be py nitpicks like the fights are all amazing except for the one fight between qara and master paku in episode 7 that was surprisingly bad but it's the only one aside from that the action sequences are a blast and I was glad to see it because it's a big part of the show you can see the amount of effort that was put there I think they knew this was one of the things they absolutely had no right to up same goes for the music music is an integral part of the identity of Avatar we all know some some of the songs they're super memorable and this reboot does not sleep on [Applause] that the score of this show is amazing and the way it takes the themes from the original series to adapt them into this version is very clever I think they did a fantastic job with that now the part I was most nervous about was obviously going to be the cast see the characters from the original Avatar are all icon I in their own right so it was really really important to cast the right people for the role and I think they got some of them as right as they possibly could wait that that sounded backhanded but I mean it I mean it Gordon Cormier was a very solid casting Choice as Ang physically speaking he's literally just Ang that is ang in liveaction he looks like he was ripped right out of the cartoon the second he appears on screen I was like y That's Twinkle Toes performance-wise we're not at a 10 out of 10 here I have some issues we'll talk about it later but he's all right he manages to do a lot with what he's given which isn't that much if I'm being totally honest a lot of Ang's identity is sort of missing here the writing kind of strips him of a lot of his childish persona but Gordon is doing a solid job at bringing the Glee and the emotion of the character forward it's not perfect but we all know it could be way worse you're lying oh and to talk about someone else I know a lot of you have been hating on him since before the show even came out but I'm sorry to verst your bubble guys that's Saka rhymes with AA I don't care what you say that is Saka Ian owley nailed this role he's awesome in it he's not as funny or witty as the original Saka I'll give you that the writing of the character also makes him way less interest interesting absolutely agree but you're a liar if you don't admit that Ian embodies the vibe of this character almost perfectly you're not serious guara no there's no way you're getting me on that that's Saka dude he just needs better writing I know a lot of people have been complaining about the casting choices since before the show even came out but honestly most of the people I've seen complain about the actors are mostly crybabies who are unhappy that the cast doesn't look as attractive as they imagin the characters to be in their heads all of the creepy men who are mad that aula is in the waifu they expected to see and all the creepy women who are complaining that Zuko and Saka are not hot enough and that they can't sexualize them and can't call them daddy these characters are kids you weirdos what are you complaining about here AKA is 15 years old aula is 14 I've never seen a bunch of grown ass men and women so desperately and openly devoted to feeling sexually attracted to kids and teenagers shut the up you're all weird anyways back to the characters after Saka it took me a second but this version of Zuko grew on me actually like him a lot Dallas Lou does a pretty fantastic job at capturing the insane rage that is constantly inside of Zuko I have my issues with how he was written we'll talk about that more later but generally speaking while this is not nearly as good as the original Prince Zuko who has one of the greatest character arcs in TV history I'm fine with this version of the character and I feel the same about Uncle iro this is clearly a different take on the character of Uncle iro but I liked him he's attaching he's sweet he's different but the core of what makes the character is still there and that's all I would have ever wanted for him iro in this version is surprisingly at the center of most of the emotional scenes in the show we even get an extended backstory and flashback sequences pertaining to the death of his son and there is a much greater emphasis put on his relationship with Zuko and yes the show gets a little too literal with it at times like some scenes are a little heavy-handed with the emotions it kind of bleeds into this larger problem of the show feeling the need to tell you how to feel at every turn but whatever that's an nitpick I like this iro I am totally okay with this version of the character Maria xang as Suki was amazing I absolutely loved her I cannot wait to see her again the writing of the character was a little off there are a couple of decision there I didn't understand but I still liked her a lot she's awesome ardan show as June made my heart feel whole I I love ardan show I get so excited whenever she scores a big project and she's absolutely amazing as Drew she felt like the character from the cartoon brought to life from start to finish even though her storyline in the reboot is different but she was so good she was so fun she absolutely nailed it 10 out of 10 no notes and side note the fact that ardan turned down the god aul Teen Wolf movie because they refused to pay her fairly and that she went on to do this instead makes me so happy for her she's a super underrated actress Hollywood gu her in more things however if I could if I could just bring up something real quick some people online are saying that ardan show should have played aula because she Nails the personality in the show and uh guys I'm a huge fan of Ard and show I adore her but let's be real here for a second guys aula is 14 years old ardan show is almost 40 she's like 38 or 39 what is disgusting Choice what are we doing Focus guys we're trying to make sense here oh and of course I can't have a positive section in this video without talking about the big bad Daniel Day Kim as fire lord oai is just perfect casting I can't think of anyone else that could fit this world that accurately in liveaction it's absolutely batshit how Flawless this version of oai is and it's really cool to have Daniel in the role because he's an OG he voiced characters both in the original series and in Legend of Kora yes he is aami's father I wouldn't say he also feels like the cartoon brought to life in its entirety here because it's just so hard to stand next to a character that was forced by Mark Hamill but if it's not 100% we're at an easy 95 he is fantastic I will say though my only problem with oai is simply that we see too much of him we see too much of oai it kills the mystery again Daniel dayim in the role is perfect genius move I think he's the best guessing Choice out of everybody but I do have to stand by the fact that most of what made fire lord oai so threatening in the animated series was the fact that he was shrouded in mystery for most of the show people talk about him a whole lot you often see how afraid of him people are and occasionally you'll see his silhouette or you'll hear his voice but the threat of him is meticulously cultivated by building up his arrival over a long period of time in the original series you don't actually see oai until the first episode of season three the final season and you feel it the first time you see him because after two Seasons when you finally see him on screen you know this is it you immediately feel like this is the end game like things are about to get very real and very serious but in this show oai is just there like constantly he appears in almost every episode I think the two final scenes of the season are with him like he has a much much larger role in this show and I think that actually does him a disservice I was fine with seeing a little bit of him earlier than expected I get why they're doing it but having him be a main character in the show just doesn't land for me like in my head oai is like SEO from Final Fantasy 7 he is cool as he is the definition of badass and a fan favorite and he's evil and so strong but he works better when he's mysterious the feeling of him being a million steps ahead the unknown is what makes him more threatening if you show too much of him he loses his impact that's kind of where I was at with oai by the end of the season he's cool he's badass but he is always there so it doesn't feel as Grand you don't feel the impact of his presence because we don't build up to it but again Daniel Day Kim is just too good in the role it's ridiculous nobody should have the to carry that much Charisma there should be laws about this and you know what it I also like gatso I don't care what any of you have to say he's completely different from the one in the original but I don't care he was so adorable I just wanted to hug him the whole time he's so sweet man like I wasn't a big fan of how the show adapted the spirit world storyline I think they actually did a pretty bad job with that one but they added a new scene where Ang briefly reunites with with gatso in the spirit world and it just made me feel things dude hey [Music] cheater I just H I love him I love how this version of gatso cares for Ang it's beautiful that scene was actually a welcome addition for me which actually makes me think like I said earlier there are a lot of narrative changes in this liveaction series that I do not like I think most of them don't work but some of them are actually pretty good there are changes made in the show that I genuinely enjoyed I wouldn't necessarily say they improve on the source material but that doesn't mean they weren't good in their own right the scene where iro is being transported by Earth Kingdom soldiers and is confronted by one of them was a slight change that added a lot of weight to the terror iro Unleashed on the world when he was younger hearing about him killing a 19-year-old boy during the siege of bossing say serves as a very effective reminder that iro is not just a lovable Uncle you want to hug people called him the dragon of the West there is a reason for that he was a merciless General who caused the deaths of thousands of people and watching him being confronted with that pass from someone who experienced loss by his hand was genuinely amazing moment all those lives lost all that fighting and bossing say still stands was it worth it we were at War I was a soldier you were a butcher the addition of Avatar Kyoshi taking over Ang's body to go and defend her Island was so sick oh my god this was one of the most Shameless fan service moments in the entire series because Koshi is an Ultimate Fan Favorite and we've only ever seen glimpses of her but I ate it up this scene is crazy it goes so hard for no reason bro come on I'm sorry seeing Koshi in action with her full might Unleashed is just so good this scene is Godly I had a big ass GD on my face the whole time it was playing fantastic change I adored it it was badass Ivon Chapman from the show kung fu played Koshi and she nailed it I don't think Koshi would have yelled at Ang and been so aggressively aggressive with him the way she was but that's an ipick she was great I hope we get to see more of her seeing the invasion of the air temple in the pilot is not going to work for everybody but it worked for me I liked it I think it should have been a shorter intro to the show but seeing Fire Lord San in action and the Airbenders desperately trying to defend their lives and their domain was heartbreaking it was definitely a bold choice to give us that visual element of how brutally this war started but it's one of the instances where I'm like yeah obviously they're cartoon was not able to show this but this works I think this works as an added element in the story The added fight scene between Zuko and Ang and omashu was really cool I love how they use the environment around them and we get to see Zuko's pride in full display when he says he doesn't even need to use his fire bending to beat Ang's ass it's a cool little character moment brought with like a fun new action scene that was not in the cartoon so yeah there are changes here that work there is some good in this show show there are things I didn't really love or hate like I felt pretty indifferent about them either because it was boring or because I just didn't care princess UA and her bad wig were pretty whatever to me I think pretty much everybody agrees that this version of the character has none of the charm of the original and this weird story change where she meets Saka for the first time in the spirit world was completely pointless Jed was fine I didn't mind him I get why they had to change his story line but I thought the way they went about it was pretty boring Danny pewy was okay as the mechanist and the kid who plays te is fine the blending of the story lines to make it fit with jet and omashu was like a little much and that's honestly the part of the show where I mentally clocked out for a bit Zuko actually fighting back in the agnik kai against his dad was a little odd to me but the part that I find completely ridiculous is the fact that this show is asking us to believe that Zuko could have won won that fight and got the upper hand on oai for a second that is a 13-year-old Zuko almost beat his dad in a fight you that's the biggest lie this reboot has tried to shove down my throat I don't know I think the cartoon just does it better I actually think it's even more tragic that oai destroyed Zuko's face in the agnik kai as Zuko was still begging for forgiveness and was too afraid to even con consider the idea of facing his father in an agnik Kai Zuko at this point in time would not be able to land a hit on his dad and the way it plays in the cartoon not only makes Zuko's backstory even sadder it also makes oai more cruel and scarier but H it's not the end of the world I thought it was a weird choice that just felt like they wanted to shove in another action scene like so we can see oai in action but whatever I don't care that much about that anyway way you get the gist there is some good in the show there is some whatever stuff in the show and now it is time to move on to the things that bothered me a little too much let's talk about the bad stuff okay there is a lot to talk about here because yes while there is a number of things the show deserves praise for there is also a lot of criticism that needs to be thrown its way Avatar 2024 has a lot of problems that not only diminish the impact of the story but also takes away a lot of its magic yes the lack of humor is a very noticeable one not that the show doesn't have funny moments it does but it clearly lacks the Charisma and the hilarious banter between the characters but gr scheme of thinks that's arbitrary the issues I have with the show are a bit more fundamental and I think that's why the show has had such mixed reviews there are things that are very hard to ignore here and right off the bat but the big problem with the Last Airbender that is an issue I also voiced very loudly with the Percy Jackson series is the exposition problem both of those adaptations have the same fatal flaw of taking a beloved Story full of nuance and compelling subtext only to dumb it down to an insane degree because they think the audience is stupid and is not going to get it it's infuriating and it is unfortunately becoming a bit of a trend in Hollywood yes the writing here is a huge massive and very noticeable downgrade from the cartoon huge it feels incredibly rushed despite the fact that both the first season of the Remake and the cartoon are about the same runtime like the pacing of the Netflix show is just not as strong because it lacks the episodic nature of the original which in turn makes the storytelling kind of sloppy and that makes the writers nervous and they use Exposition way too much as a way to fill the gaps exactly the same thing that happened to Percy Jackson although they are slightly different where the Percy Jackson series relied way too heavily on Exposition to do literally anything and as a way to speedrun through the story The Avatar Series has a different problem with it I always say that Exposition should be used as a way to help set up the storytelling not to replace the storytelling and that was one of the biggest weaknesses of the Percy Jackson series it tells you everything and shows you nothing Avatar 20124 doesn't really have that problem or at least not nearly as bad the storytelling is there for the most part the events of the show are there you get to see them but the problem with this Avatar series is that it seems like the writers feel very insecure and are constantly afraid that people watching the show who didn't watch the original original series will not be able to understand what's going on and as a result of that insecurity the Avatar series Almost instantly gets into this very annoying habit of overe explaining things at all times the exposition of this show is so frustratingly repetitive that it becomes distracting it's like overkill for the first five or six episodes it feels like the characters are repeating the same things over and over and over again everyone is a broken record with repetitive dialogue the story has its subtext and its complexity almost completely ripped away because the writers think they need to tell you everything in excruciating detail in every single scene you will know what every character thinks and feels at any given moment they will break it down out loud the characters are constantly repeating what their motivations are they will constantly remind you what they're doing and why they're doing it just in case you didn't remember from the previous scene almost every sequence that serves as downtime for the main Trio for example where they have a moment of quiet where they get to talk and bond and develop their relationships is instead Systema Ally used as a way for Ang to repeat again and again that he has to save the world that he is the Avatar and that he doesn't know what he's doing but he has to save the world because he's the Avatar but he doesn't know what he's doing this whole time I've been worried that I don't know what I'm doing and the truth is I don't how many more forc have died because I wasn't here because I don't know what I'm doing I do need you I'm supposed to be the Avatar and everyone is counting on me except I don't know what I'm doing and then I don't know how many times he repeats that he needs to let go of the past and focus on the future and everyone around him keeps repeating the exact same sentence this is the past now only one person can tell you the future the past the future it all gets mixed up seeds for the future not past mistakes if I were you I'd be thinking less about my past and more about my future I think I understand something Gat was trying to tell me he told me let go of the past or all never have a future Ang's dialogue is so repetitive that it becomes boring and it makes Ang as a character feel incredibly flat and monotonous and it's like that for most of the characters a great example of the show overe explaining things and erasing subtext is in episode 6 in the scene after zuku rescues Ang from the firebenders in that scene they have a lengthy conversation where every single point of contention between them every little detail of their differences and their past are told out loud it's a very long scene where they talk forever and it leaves absolute abolutely nothing to the viewer's understanding if I catch you I can go home then I can take my place as the rightful heir to the fire lord that's what you want to be the next fire lord of course it's what everyone expects of me yat is my teacher he said we can't worry about anyone else's expectations I know it's not that easy I mean I'm the Avatar it's what everyone expects of me in the Animated Series this doesn't happen there is a much shorter sequence that is way more interesting for the characters because of all the subtext in that scene instead of Ang overe explaining his feelings and stance on the world and having both of them explaining out loud everything that pertains to their relationship and visions of the world in excruciating detail Ang just tells Zuko that a 100 years ago when the world was at peace he had a really good friend in the Fire Nation they were very close and they loved to play together and it makes him question whether him and Zuko are victims of their circumstances so Ang asks Zuko if he thinks that if they had met back then they could have been friends too upon hearing that Zuko snaps and tries to attack Ang but he's injured and Ang gets scared and runs away that's it that's the scene the liveaction series also has that scene but it's after a much longer one that feels obligated to overexplained so great in the original so like the scene is there sure but it doesn't hit the same because the beauty of that scene is in everything that isn't said but the reboot doesn't trust that you'll understand the meaning behind it so now we need to have a 5 minute extra sequence that explains it from beginning to end like a textbook before we can show you the scene from the cartoon it's so stupid and that is a problem that leads to another even more annoying problem that plays the show from beginning to end and that is bad dialogue a lot of people have pointed out that the acting in this show feels off and for a second I couldn't quite put my finger on why but now that I finished the series I can 100% say with no doubt in my mind that it's just terrible dialogue because again it's mostly Exposition and it feels so robotic and repetitive that most of the actors in the show regardless of their emotional performances regardless of how good or bad they are as actors all just have a weird line delivery and yes some of them are due to just bad acting but even those I love in their roles can't escape it because most of their lines feel like they're reading a synopsis of the show and its lore out loud and there is very little dialogue that serves to do anything other than expositing here's Zuko the reason why here hunting the Avatar is because my father banished me the Avatar is the only one who could stand against the Fire Nation and that is why I am here trying to get oh we're getting Ang at the southern air Temple maybe we'll get the scene where the other kids don't want to play with him anymore after they find out he's the Avatar AA I don't even understand why I'm the Avatar master of all four elements I didn't even want to be the Avatar monologue to Opa monkey says I'm special but I don't want to be special I just want to be a normal kid like everyone else and now that I'm the Avatar master of all four elements they won't play with me 100 years past and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar an air bender named a and although his air bending skills are great understand and the bad dialogue is made even worse when it's being spewed out by poorly written characters that feel like contrived discount versions of the characters from the original animated series and that is the second fatal flaw of this reboot some of the characters are so poorly adapted in this show it made my blood boil there are some characters in here that had me physically scratch my head because I just couldn't understand how they got them so bad let me give you a few examples this is not qara I don't know who that is I don't know why they're trying to tell me it's qara of the Southern water tribe but I don't believe it for a second and this breaks my heart on a personal level because qara is one of my favorite f characters of all time I think she is incredible and I love her story and it makes me really sad to see how terribly they adapted this character and that's after the other one I mean I what did they do to her qara in the Original Series has such a distinct personality full of layers she is kind and caring but she's also bossy and assertive she has an attitude she is fierce and she doesn't let anyone step on her toes she's also a bit of a jealous prick sometimes she's a sore loser and she lets her temper get the better of her and she's just mean to people when that happens like she's very flawed but overall she's also a figure of authority she's like the mom of the group a lot of people turn to her for answers or for Comfort because she has such a caring nature she's a very emotionally complex likes character she is sweet and full of love but there is also a fire inside of her there is an underlying anger that she doesn't know how to control because it's an anger that she feels from the unfairness of losing her mother the way she did she's stubborn and defiant nobody can tell her what to do she values making her own choices Above All Else and an essential part of her character comes from her need to show maturity which essentially makes her a mother figure to most people around her including Saka Saka himself says that when he thinks of their mom in his head he pictures qara because that is just the core of who she is qara in this adaptation though is unrecognizable they completely strip her of everything that makes her qara where qara in the animated series is stubborn bossy and assertive this Scara is like quiet compliant emotionless and surprisingly docile it feels like the writers completely miss the point of this character this qara is so boring and lacks so much of the agency the character has the strong defiant helpful domineering qara is shoved aside in favor of a dull naive and subservient goodie T shoes with no person personality who doesn't contribute a whole lot to this journey and it's so irritating qara is not a goody T Sho she is not above doing ugly things to get what she wants I hated that the show had her get her water bending scroll from her grand grand as they left because as a result we don't get to see the scene from The Animated show where she steals it from a bunch of pirates to further her own desire to learn for herself it might seem insignificant but those are the moments that that truly make her character have a strong sense of identity but this show completely rips that identity away from her she's literally made of cardboard here all of the nuance and the complexity of the character along with her very specific personality are thrown out the window she's surprisingly emotionless like this is Scara the entire show this is her one facial expression and like it's not even that Keno is bad in the role I don't necessarily think she is but the character comes across wooden because she's written so one-dimensional and boring that it doesn't matter if Kia weno is good in the role it's still going to be flat and same as we saw with Percy Jackson I think this is a direct result of these shows putting all the emphasis on getting to big story points over literally everything else a lot of the avatar animated series is about character which is why people are so attached to it it's a great story led by great characters they are the center but the liveaction series is not about characters it's about plot this show is more concerned with getting to the next big plot point from the original series than it is developing the characters and their relationships all of the little story lines that are there to allow the characters to bond so that we the audience can feel the strength of their relationships are cut out we never really get to see Saka and Ang becoming like brothers the show seems completely uninterested in the romance between Ang and qara to the point where one of the defining sequences of their relationship the tunnel of lovers is swapped to have Saka there with qara instead of Ang and overall the relationships between the characters feel very thin the only exception to that would be Zuko and iro whose relationship got way more attention than it even does in the animated series and a lot of that worked for me I like how much emotion they brought to it but it still bothered me because it severely impacts Zuko as a character like I said I really like Dallas Lou as Zuko I think his take on the character makes sense for this adaptation but I just don't like the choices made with his narrative the problem with this Zuko is that the Show refuses to commit to him being a villain and he's almost immediately made way too sympathetic in the beginning of the Animated Series Zuko is the main antagonist he is a villain and the show does not shy away from that he's ruthless and cruel he's on demon time every second he is on screen like it takes a while before his more human more vulnerable side starts to peek through and that sharp contrast from the guy you knew earlier in the show is what makes his character Arc so great Zuko's story is about finding the humanity within yourself the desire to change to grow and be better and more importantly the ability to come back from the darkest of places that story benefits from him being almost irredeemably evil at the beginning but because the reboot already knows he's going to get a Redemption Arc it starts setting it up immediately in a man that is way too obvious and we don't really get the villain as Zuko that we find Despicable at first this show will not commit to him being a villain the fact that they changed the attack on Koshi Island to have it be led by Admiral Xiao instead of Zuko really shows that they did not want this Zuko to do anything to Evil by fear of alienating audiences and in my opinion that is a failure it just takes so much away from his character and his art and I could say the same for his sister oh my God I do not like this version of aula at all everything we see of her this season is unique to this season she's not supposed to be there Azula shows up in the Animated Series much later and I think showing her now was a bad decision it also doesn't help that the show changes the character in ways I just found really annoying and unnecessary azula's entire character is about ego she has an almost obsessive need to be perfect it doesn't matter to her if she's the best at something she could be the greatest one to ever do it if it's not absolutely Flawless it's still not going to be enough for her she clearly has insecurities but they are hidden very very deep when you meet aula there is a con confidence and a Cockiness to her that is almost terrifying she's ruthless she's cruel she's heartless and she enjoys being evil she enjoys hurting people she's a bully which makes her even more dangerous because she is lethal fighting aula is almost a guaranteed death certificate for pretty much anyone it's pretty much impossible to beat her especially in a one-on-one fight because not only is she a psychopath who enjoys causing pain and death she also has impeccable discipline she is incredibly well-trained she's probably the most skilled fighter We Ever Meet in this universe but the reboot completely wipes that scary element because as soon as you meet her you are immediately shown this more vulnerable side of her that is really insecure the same way Zuko is made instantly way too sympathetic aoula is made instantly too insecure this Azula is not confident and intense and severe with herself this aula is just really whiny and as a result she's not that threatening we get so many repetitive new scenes with her May and Tye scenes with very bad acting might I add where aula is just standing around being very insecure while May and Tye keep telling her she's the best again taking the complexity of her character and dumbing it down to below zero with repetitive Exposition because the writers think they have to say it out loud otherwise you won't understand all the confidence the arrogance and the Cockiness of the character are gone and all of her layers are just explained to you out loud because again the writers think you're stupid and you're not going to get it and so she just does a lot of that is completely out of character for her I'm done aula stop playing games I'm not the one playing games this is your last chance fight or fail no I'm sorry what aula would never stand up to her father like this ever like I said she is a maniac who thrives in violence but Azula is also incredibly disciplined her father is the old ultimate authority to her probably the only Authority she recognizes she is super docile when it comes to her father she would never do this I'm getting annoyed again this version of the character sucks I don't like what they did to her it's like the show is too impatient and is not willing to take the time to slowly peel off the layers of its characters as their arcs progress over time they want to tell you every bit of complexity and Nuance they have in immediately and that just kills the elements that make those characters interesting and compelling but if we're going to talk about characters that were terribly adapted we have to talk about boomy oh my God oh my God what did they do to my boy my boy Boomie was out here doing oh my God what did they do to you you didn't deserve this okay let's talk about it I think this is one of the greatest examples of the show kind of killing the heart of the story in ways that don't make sense and that are so unnecessary that I just don't understand what that decision looked like in the writer's room first the part that annoys me the most is that the show pulls a Percy Jackson and Ang figures out the king is his old friend boomi the second he meets him and not only does he figure it out he doesn't seem to care all that much his old friend is standing in front of him no emotion he's confused for like a second and then nothing that irritated me so much because it takes away the emotional punch of this entire storyline in the Animated Series Ang and boom's friendship is so sweet it's so touching there's a sincerity to it that just warms your heart yes Boomie is trying to teach Ang a lesson and he's trying to help him come to terms with his identity as the Avatar but he's also doing all of this because it's his last chance to play a game with his friend he's just having fun with his friend because he missed him he kidnaps qara and Saka and threatens to kill them if Ang doesn't go through with his challenges but it's literally just a prank he's just pranking Ang the final challenge he gives to Ang to save his friends life is just asking him to guess his name and when Ang understands that the king is Boomie which is after he fights him he calls him a mad genius because he realizes he was never actually in danger and neither were his friends Ang throws himself in boom's arms and they hug and Ang tears up because everyone he's ever known before he disappeared for a hundred years is now dead and this is the first time since his return that he gets to reunite with a friend someone that was in his life prior to him disappearing it's such a beautiful episode I love it so much it's like a heartwarming little pocket story about a friendship that literally transcended time Boomie is a very small character in The Avatar series but he is so memorable but this adaptation butchered him they ruined my boy liveaction Boomie is a Maniac who is genuinely angry at angk for abandoning the world for a hundred years he shames him and yells at him and his challenge in this version is not about teaching him a lesson it's about getting revenge on him he's literally just bitter and like in a way that is so weird like he actually tries to force Ang to murder him like this Boomie is kind of evil in a way that doesn't make sense and like I'm not opposed to the idea of Boomie wanting to hold Ang accountable for running away from his responsibilities as the Avatar it would sort of make sense except again this version of Ang didn't run away from his responsibilities he was just the victim of a bad storm and I just uh oh my God I I got to move on from this because I'm going to go crazy Boomie was a travesty the writers should be ashamed of themselves now there are a bunch of other bad changes and Emissions that bothered me but I'm going to have to Rapid Fire them because otherwise we're going to be here for like 16 hours I really did not like the way they used Co the face stealer in this show he looked amazing and perfectly accurate I love that George te does a little Cameo by voicing him that's amazing that's awesome but the use of the character in the script was Dumb and it annoyed me the whole concept of K the face stealer is that he's a malicious spirit that steals the face of whoever shows emotion in front of him but for some reason the show never explains that you're not supposed to show emotion in front of Co because if you do he will steal your face but in the cartoon watching Co trying to jump scare Ang and trying to trick him into showing emo and having Ang forc himself to be as dead Pann as possible while talking to him was so fun I don't get why they couldn't do this here also the omission of the agnik kai between Zuko and Admiral Xiao was very unfortunate because it's a great display of Zuko's actual strength and one of the first few scenes that genuinely make us roote for Zuko even though he's a villain again the entirety of the adaptation of the spirit world was I just really didn't like it I specifically don't like that we meet the ow Spirits so early because it makes me nervous that they shoved him in here because they're planning to skip the library storyline in season 2 did I mention I really don't like this version of qara also also the show changes the lore by saying Ang can only talk to the spirit of a past Avatar when he is physically in their domain that is a very bizarre change that is going to significantly impact the way the story is adapted moving moving forward and I have a feeling that's going to be redcon in future Seasons the secret tunnel scene was not good the badero looked accurate that's awesome but changing it to not have ank trapped in there with qara is dumb I get what they were going for with the change I just think it doesn't work we do not meet Jong Jong in this show and that is crazy because his presence is the beginning of Ang's very complicated relationship with bending something that lasts till the very end of the story grand grand was very cringe that was a bad performance and just awful Exposition given through her and no having her recite the opening of the cartoon word for word was not cute it was cringe master paku and the entire storyline around him and qara in the North Pole is really frustrating it's so terribly adapted and it's an a great display of how little storylines can work with this version of qara because her characterization is just wrong and also the fact that the show admits that one of the big reasons why paku changes his mind about letting qara fight is because he realizes katara's grandmother was the woman he loved the woman he was supposed to marry but she ended up leaving because she couldn't stand that the culture of the north was too stuck in its old ways the fact that we meet Avatar Roku and he doesn't tell Ang about San's Comet which kickstarts the real quest of the entire show was particularly weird to me but I have a theory that the reason why they skipped that is because the writers don't want to put a deadline on the show's story because in real life the actors are aging and this show takes forever to make so like I have a feeling this version of the story will not have the comet arriving in less than a year that's why the final scene with oai also purposefully avoided telling us when San's Comet was going to return I wouldn't be be surprised if the showrunners opted to have significant time jumps between Seasons because season 2 is not going to come out before like 2026 and let me tell you the kids are not going to look like this anymore but regardless it's still annoying also Avatar Roku I just I what was that Zuko is basically the only character that truly gets any development in the entire season everyone else was robbed of their arcs the fact that there isn't a single SE this season where Ang learns water bending is baffling to me whether it be with qara or with paku later on the fact that book one ends with Ang not having spent a single second actually learning to master another element is wild and I don't understand it Percy Annabeth and Grover being aware that the Lotus casino is a trap before entering it is just so oh wait no that's that's the wrong show look I could do this a whole lot I could keep going for another hour if I wanted to there's so so much to pick apart with this show but the truth is in its globality there just isn't that much to say about it there isn't that much that justifies going incredibly in depth and I could go on with this list but the point is it's all leading to the same conclusion Avatar 2024 is just mid it's mid and mid doesn't necessarily mean bad it's just mid it's the middle ground a five out of 10 it's not great it's not awful it's just kind of there it exists for some reason I think the show fails at justifying its own existence but the action is fun and it looks pretty I can't think of a single reason why I would recommend this version over the original to anybody who wants to get into this world like yeah you can watch this version and have an okay time like I was entertained to some degree the entire time I watched it but it's ultimately pretty forgettable it's just easily consumable content that significantly dumbs down an incredible story so like if you want to watch the same show except much better with infinitely better pacing characters with way more emotional depth and development incredible arcs even greater World building and lore with more humor and a vibe that is overall way more fun and emotionally driven well yeah then just watch the Animated Series it's a perfect show there is literally no viable reason to choose the liveaction Remake over the original this show will probably get a second season it's probably going to come out in 2026 and people are going to watch you just kind of have to accept that this is a lesser version of the Animated Series in almost every way and that it just doesn't have a reason to exist it doesn't have the heart it doesn't have the depth it's the same concept as the Disney liveaction movies it's literally just Disney looking at all of their Classics and going what if we just remade them but not as good and that's it that's the idea this video could have easily been like 2 hours long but I don't feel like going in depth about a show that like at worst is stupidly changing and already Perfect story and at best is just a shot forsh shot remake of something we've already seen but you know what I'm not too sad this could have been way worse we've already gotten way worse and while the creators of the original series walked out of this project they've actually been working on an animated sequel movie to the original that's going to come out next year it's apparently going to follow Ang qara Saka Toof and Zuko in their late 20s and early 30s the fact that it took 18 years for this to happen is wild to me I don't know what the idea was there but I'm glad it's finally coming and we're apparently also getting a new animated series about a new Avatar who I assume is going to be the successor of Kora and this time it's apparently going to be an earthbender so you know what we have a lot to look forward to Avatar 2024 is there it exists it's mid it will probably be forgotten very quickly and that'll be the end of that oh and by the way if you think we're done with liveaction remakes uh we're not they're doing Naruto next Merry Christmas this is never going to end goodbye but if you know you [Music] know but if you know you [Music] know you got me feeling met

Channel: Friendly Space Ninja

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Id: CGq-q9hnxD0

Length: 65min 52sec (3952 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2024