Netflix's Last Airbender is a Fundamental Failure

after years of anticipation Netflix's liveaction adaptation of the Masterpiece avatar The Last Airbender has finally arrived I know I generally talk about adult animation on this channel but the truth is is that there is probably no fictional world I love more than that of avatar The Last Airbender I have rewatched both Avatar and the legend of Kora more times than I can count I own every art book I read the graphic novels I've read the regular novels I cannot get enough of this world I would honestly abandon my YouTube channels entirely for a chance to be lowest on the totem pole in an a AR studios's writing room I love it that much so as you might expect as a fan and animation guy I have been skeptical about Last Airbender really working in live action if you're a fan of the channel you probably know that I am generally a positive guy I always give things a chance and I do my best work when I criticize constructively not with disdain or malice and usually if I really dislike something I don't find much joy in talking about it at all this is a slightly different case because while I ultimately was not a huge fan of this liveaction adaptation I am such a massive fan of the source material and franchise in general I just have so much I feel I need to say about Netflix's last air bender yeah this video is probably framed more negatively than my usual videos but I promise it's not just negativity there are plenty of things I like and my feedback is mostly constructive but I have a lot of thoughts about this adaptation about its positives about its shortcomings and where the franchise might go from here so hey let's get into [Music] it just a heads up this video will contain Major Spoilers for the entire season of the new series and the entirety of the original series as well as minor spoilers for The Legend of Kora the search graphic novels and the Kyoshi books if you're looking to avoid any of that tread carefully so as to not be wildly negative right off the bat I want to start by talking about the things I appreciated about this show for one I do think it's a good thing that they didn't approach this as a one-o-one recreation of the original series that is the correct approach to take obviously things need to be adjusted condensed expanded on approached from a different angle to make the very idea of redoing the show worthwhile the important thing is capturing the spirit and essence of the original understanding its Characters themes and messages which is the aspect that I think is much more debatable in terms of whether or not they were successful I actually did appreciate that they attempted to expand on some aspects of the series it was admirable to try and include more oai and aula in the first season I don't think the sort of only shown in silhouette oai implementation from the Animated Series would have really worked as well in liveaction so why not try to expand his world we got added context to relationships like Zuko and iro as well as added context to Zuko's banishment I'll talk more about that in detail later cuz there are aspects here I think really work and some that do not while I have issues with how condensed everything felt they did get pretty creative with how they combined some of the stories I at least admired the efforts to try to maintain so many individual stories from the original 20 episode season in this 8 episode version okay and as a massive fan of the franchise and its expanded lore I adored the way they implemented many of the concepts that came later in the franchise into this first season utilizing the fog of Lost Souls which wasn't introduced until Legend of Kora referencing Co the face dealer's mother the mother of faces from the search graphic novels and especially how they alluded to Kyoshi and kic's backstories did you know she was an orphan lived on the streets until she was hired as a house girl for the richest family on the island this is blatantly referencing kyoshi's history as depicted in the Kyoshi novels rise of Koshi and Shadow of Koshi by fce which outside of the two series are easily my favorite Avatar content the graphic novels are fun continuations but they sort of just maintain my interest in the existing World ye's novels had me on the edge of my seat they're the best expansion of the universe outside of the shows very easily and the details they revealed from kck's Life are also pulled right from Shadow of Kyoshi I discovered dark Spirits were on the verge of crossing over into our realm from the spirit world I had to stop them kuck is such a fascinating Avatar he died very young and was seen as a complete failure as an avatar however he was secretly waging this war against these specific spirits to prevent them from harming the world a real unsung hero it's cool to see that aspect of his history acknowledged in something that so many fans of the series will see I appreciated that there were details like this intertwined for Mega fans like myself and also introduced a taste of that expanded lore for the fans who haven't explored the content outside of the shows but there are also a lot of General issues I have with the series as well while I fully understand the stories have to be condensed and I even praise their creativity in combining some of them there are clear downsides to trying to include as much as they did in a mere 8 episode season the bigger issue is that it simply dilutes the impact that some of these stories were meant to have when you take two to four different episodes story lines shrink them down a bit and intertwine them they aren't given the space in the narrative structure to affect the characters and audience in the same way combining Jets Freedom Fighters and the mechanist story lines in omashu is decently economic in its storytelling but the story isn't even remotely as powerful as either the defense of the Northern Air Temple or jets the decision to destroy the Fire Nation occupied town from the original show and there are countless examples of this unfortunately the other big issue is that by roping all of these stories together it also condenses the breadth of locations we saw in the original series which makes the world itself feel much smaller using that previous story as an example we lose out on seeing the Northern Air Temple it reveals Jet's Camp to basically be on the outskirts of omashu and we don't get to see the Earth Kingdom Town that's been occupied by the fire nation which goes a really long way in showcasing the extent of the fire nation's control one of the things that makes the Avatar universe so incredibly rich is the extent of its World building it's such a massive lived in World it feels like there are dozens of different stories from different perspectives that could be told in it I do not feel the same way when I'm watching the liveaction counterpart even something as simple as failing to Showcase many of the iconic hybrid animals from the franchise really harms that World building we see a few in the opening sequence which are barely visible at night the big chocoo like birds are showcased a lot it was cool to see the badral and June's Shu but even Opa and Momo are bar ly utilized in the show Opa has so much personality in the original and it doesn't come through at all here which will absolutely be a detriment if they choose to adapt The Arc where he's taken from a okay let's talk about the action and bending in general I find it serviceable it's obviously leagues better than a lot of the stuff from the Shyamalan film they did a much better job making the bending an extension of martial arts rather than a magic power in general the fire bending looks really good across the board but it's definitely still lacking in particular the water bending which always feels incredibly slow it doesn't feel like there's any real impact to these hits which is a ridiculous shame because waterbending has easily some of the coolest combat in the original series and this was always one of the biggest concerns I had going into this show bending is never going to be as cool in live action as it is in animation the intertwining of the Motions expressions and weight are so important in selling the concept of bending even very simple details just make it feel so much less impactful look at the the scene where the Earth Nation officer is threatening iro by holding a massive Boulder above his head look at the lack of strain it just looks like he's holding his hands up it should look as though he is holding up a massive Boulder the weight of that piece of Earth should be apparent in his stance in his expression in his body tension none of these things are being conveyed it just takes away from the believability of the world in my opinion and sadly though the production design is very good and clearly very inspired the world feels far too sanitized the costumes are a really good example of this they are Picture Perfect adaptations of the costumes we saw in the Animated Series but they are so unbelievably clean looking if you're bringing this world into liveaction it has to feel real I don't buy for even a moment that these costumes have ever been worn outside of a dressing room or Sound Stage they are squeaky clean the locations are also very accurate looking and plenty of the broader establishing shots look excellent like I said in general the production design is really good but I don't think anything is as detrimental to the show as the failures in and characterization I somewhat respect their decision to open the series a bit differently opting to show a at the southern air Temple before he runs away and becomes Frozen but in execution this is a complete mess given that it was actually a perfect opportunity for some genuine character establishing moments instead it has some of the worst instances of tell don't show I've ever seen I know who I am I like to play air ball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends that's who I am this is a terrible way to introduce your protagonist especially when you had a prime opportunity to actually show these things stuff we see plenty of in flashbacks in the original series opting to tell these events chronologically instead of alluding and flashing back like in the original show isn't necessarily a bad idea but failing to show the audience who Ang is in his introduction is just a clear failure in writing sure we learn everything about Ang's lore in this opening but it's just a full-on info dump that information shouldn't take precedence over seeing who Ang is which is done so brilliantly in the OG instead we're shown the Airbender Jedi Council who again info dumps all of Ang's lore on the audience it's like they're filming a textbook instead of a proper character introduction and Ang's inner conflict itself is severely diminished here as well the entire reason he gets frozen is that he just wanted to go for a spin with Opa to clear his head and got caught in a storm while doing it which in itself is so silly why would he just go for a casual fly into a storm if it was casual he should have immediately turned around It ultimately boiled down to a whoopsie instead of a deliberate decision to avoid his responsibility like in the original which is both a much better justification for him flying into a storm to actually run away and also adds so much weight to the burden he bears as the last air bender the idea that he actively abandoned his people only for them to then be massacred these seem like tiny details in the moment but as soon as you expound on them you see the ripple effect and how negatively they can affect the characters as a whole and I'm not entirely sure why we needed to see the Airbender genocide at all I understand wanting to show something different than the original show but in some cases it's just so clear why the story was told the way it is it makes a much bigger impact to First experience the remains of the air Nomad Society through Ang's eyes for multiple reasons this is what Ang sees when he finds Gato in the original series this beautiful shot that paints a horrifying picture of gazo's Last Stand it shows that he was being swarmed and bombarded by firebending soldiers that it was an overwhelming assault on a peaceful people seeing the aftermath as your first glimpse at the reality of the genocide is so much more powerful than seeing gatu get burned to a crisp in these edgy violent moments and most importantly it's A's realization firebenders they were here this is the moment that he truly accepts the gravity of what happened to his people built upon his excellent characterization leading to this we see his optimism in nav in regards to what he'll find at the southern air Temple just because no one has seen an air bender doesn't doesn't mean the Fire Nation killed them all they probably escaped in this new version he accepts that his people are gone almost immediately and seems to go to the southern air Temple just to like double check they're going through the same motions as the original show in a more condensed less meaningful way failing to understand the underlying nuances that made it impactful look the film version is still much worse overall but this was actually something that they at least understood was important to Ang's character they must be playing some trick or something monkey is going to try and jump out and scare me at any moment The Last Airbender movie understanding any of the story's nuances better than the new show is a problem and sadly this wasn't just an issue for a there is just a general characterization issue in the series Saka is probably the most frustrating example it came out before the series dropped that they were planning to remove the sexist parts of his attitude from early on in the show which deeply concerned me considering how important it was for Saka to learn early on How Deeply rooted and toxic that part of his attitude was but it's actually a symptom of an even deeper misunderstanding of Saka character that lesson was one of the first examples of one of sasa's larger themes at first as the only man left in the southern water tribe Saka sees himself as their protector as this Warrior and over the course of the series Saka is repeatedly humbled he has decent instincts but he has to earn the skills and experience needed to actually play a substantial part in the fight humbling himself to Suki was the first part of this journey one that would come to a pretty substantial conclusion in season 3's Saka Master instead this new show makes Saka look pretty competent right off the bat in his leadership back in the southern water tribe in his fighting abilities he's generally a lot more capable in fact they ultimately give Saka the opposite issue as a character rather than overconfidence in his abilities he's got severe insecurities about them unfortunately this isn't particularly well conveyed through Saka actions it's mostly told to us in a spirit world flashback where he overhears his father criticizing his performance in the ice dodging trials the ways they choose to convey Saka lack of confidence are flimsy at best and deeply detrimental to the themes at worst most bizarrely literally everyone in the show is just a massive Saka Fanboy he rarely makes mistakes he rarely has to prove himself characters are just drawn to him and this has absolutely devastating effects on the Kyoshi Warrior storyline in the original story Saka eyes are opened and his worldview is changed thanks to Suki and the Koshi Warriors he has to dig deep and humble himself asking Suki to formally train him despite his for worldview leading him to believe that he as a man is much more capable culminating in one of the best moments in the season I treated you like a girl when I should have treated you like a warrior I am a warrior but I'm a girl too it's Pitch Perfect writing helping Saka fully understand the failures in his worldview as Suki maintains the agency that is so important for her to convey that lesson to Saka in the new series Saka still sort of trains with Suki but it's seemingly meant to help bolster his own self-confidence to help show him that he actually can be the biggest strongest boy that he has what it takes to fight the Fire Nation but they seem to be even more focused on using these scenes as a vehicle for Suki to fawn over Saka it's framed as though sasa's presence in her world is fully shifting her own worldview literally the opposite of what was conveyed in the original thank you Saka for what for bringing the world to me in the first series Suki challenges Sak's beliefs trains him and helps him grow in the new show Sak's mere EX resistance is praised as having helped Suki and given her a better life Saka basically showed up to be told you're really great actually and by merely being in his presence Suki's life is made more fulfilling there's an unbelievable irony that by removing Saka sexism they managed to instead make Suki's characterization incredibly sexist truly a disaster in the original show this was also a lesson that is deeply important to the overall themes of the entire series The Way its main characters reject the colonialist narratives perpetuated by the fire ation and the war in general my friend Jesse jender made a great video about this I highly recommend you check that out one aspect of Saka story in the new show that I do like is this idea that over the course of the Season he learns that he has different kinds of skills outside of just being a warrior something he learns in his time with the mechanist I just also think these ideas kind of contradict their messages in stories like this one with Suki I wish it had been a bit more cohesive Suki isn't even the only instance of girls fawning over Saka either the changes made at the northern water tribe are similarly baffling in the original show Saka and Yu's connection is used as a means to challenge some of the more dogmatic aspects of the northern water tribe she's basically a prisoner of their monarchal system betro to someone else there's no agency in her choices or love life despite being interested in Saka now in this show she is already broken off her engagement to Han partially because of a shoehorned spirit world connection between UA and Saka seen earlier in the season he is everything that a girl could want but he is not the boy of my dreams so now instead of UA's worldview being challenged because of a genuine connection she felt with another human being Saka is simply the boy of her dreams an otherworldly intangible connection it does UA a disservice and it does Saka a disservice and by sort of brushing off the h/a betrothal as a thing of the past it completely removes the love triangle which I firstly think is just a cowardly move but secondly it completely changes the Dynamics in a way that once again harms Saka character Journey rather than confidently showcase the knowledge he's gained through experience over the course of the season it's goated out of him he doesn't really even understand that he's gained this experience it aligns more with The Arc they tried to set up with the spirit W flashback to his father but it also deeply conflicts with everything else we've seen from Saka over the course of this season in the original series it was a satisfying culmination of the experience Saka had garnered while traveling to the northern water tribe in the remake it once again is an excuse for characters to fawn over how much they like Saka it removes conflict in a deeply uninteresting way why is everybody a Saka Fanboy it's just so bizarre to completely subvert the original characterization like entirely qara is a character who gets shafted in an entirely different way in that they really sanded down her edges qara is supposed to be this aggressively passionate person she fully has her own sense of right and wrong and she will let you know if you're conflicting with that that's what we see in the very first sequence of the original series and based on the fact that they removed the sexist aspects of Saka it feels like this was another change made to mitigate backlash for qara possibly seeming like the angry nagging woman of the group which sadly just removes all of her personality qara is an unbelievably strong character in the original and she is a shell of her former self in this I wish I had more specifics to even criticize in regard to qara but she's sadly just kind of there and this is no fault of the actress it's fully on the writing and Direction iro is another character who unfortunately suffers in the liveaction adaptation especially frustrating as his animated counterpart is one of the greatest characters in TV history I did appreciate that they started putting iro and in together from some of the earliest points in the series their Dynamic was one of my favorites in the original and I like that they tried to tap into that early unfortunately the way iro is written here leaves a lot to be desired I hate the way he dances around the fire nation's motives here and reasons for which the war was incited others believe that true stability in this world can only happen under our rule so the drive to conquer is a drive for peace I do not believe that at this point in his life iro would be entertaining these ideas in this way even if he's walking on eggshells doing it while iro is in a precarious position because of his relation to the royal family one of the most important traits he possesses is that he is steadfast in his beliefs the way his conversation with a is framed it's almost as though he is actively questioning his place in the conflict and the belief is that by capturing you the Fire Nation can finally bring that about is that what you believe I must leave these small things change the perception of io's characterization and belief system and this isn't the only example later in the season they adapt Zuko's conflict with some of the members of his Guard from the storm this is when ibro relays the circumstances around Zuko's exile to his guard and it allows these characters and the audience to empathize with Zuko's struggle all the more but the difference in the way in which iro relays this information is night and day between these versions of the show iro is supposed to be a caring and deeply understanding man when he approaches the men and offers to tell them the story he pointedly is doing so delicately and sympathetically he approaches them as fellow people not as underlings who does Zuko think he is do you really want to know General iro we were just it's okay may I join you this is also partially because he understands that Zuko's Behavior towards them is not acceptable he is trying to help his nephew by conveying his pain and Trauma to these men so that they can better understand him and sympathize with him he isn't doing it to chastise or reprimand the man but in the liveaction version that is exact exactly how it comes across Xiao is not the one who deserves your loyalty Zuko is I don't believe for a second that iro would see Zuko throw a tantrum and treat these men so poorly only to immediately defend his behavior iro loves his nephew and he knows that he's a good person deep down who is finding his way but he isn't supposed to excuse Zuko's immaturity iro would absolutely be sympathetic to the people who Zuko is treating poorly and sympathetic to the traumas that have led Zuko to behave this way and that is exact what the original show portrays but this one takes away io's man of the people quality and gives him an attitude that makes it seem like he's above those he speaking to I actually do like one change to the details of Zuko's Exile here the idea that his Outburst was in defense of a specific troop of soldiers who were going to be sacrificed and that this very troop was then placed as Zuko's guard it's a cool addition that adds even more Integrity to Zuko's underlying character but what I hate is that iro basically uses it as a way to excuse Zuko's Behavior we you're the 41st and you're all alive because of my nephew's sacrifice the iro I know would be able to convey the reality of Zuko's Integrity without excusing his immaturity without saying to the guard suck it up dude I do think that for the most part they've done a pretty good job with Zuko he's still immature and he's struggling to find himself while obviously having that aformentioned underlying Integrity they portrayed his Exile backstory pretty well but I do think that they've maybe made some mistakes in regards to his relationship with iro and and this is a particularly tough one to criticize because the reality is that in these moments these are things I really like about this new show Len's funeral comes to mind io's pain and Zuko choosing to be there for his uncle giving iro Len's medal this was one of the few moments this season that really got me emotional it's a lovely moment but in the greater context of the story I fear that this might be undermining how impactful some of the most important moments of the series will be down the line this version of the show is very explicit in portraying Zuko as io's surrogate son and Zuko very blatantly acknowledges and Embraces that Len would have been proud have you is as far which again as a fan of these characters is lovely to see however a massive part of Zuko's journey is retroactively realizing after he believes it's too late that iro was the father figure he needed all along he betrays iro deeply regrets it and their eventual reunion is an audience sobbing emotionally impactful moment because it is Zuko finally expressing those feelings to iro which for iro isn't just about getting Zuko back as his son but about Zuko finally finding himself I just fear that frontloading the story this early with these moments is going to undercut the eventual emotional impact even if they are lovely moments in the short term that being said the episode that features this masks is very easily the best in the series truly in terms of both adaptation and general storytelling they mostly combined the storm and blue spirit and I think this was a really smart Instinct both episodes go a long way to subvert what we already know about Zuko they're natural stories to combine kudos to the team for making that choice I was even just generally impressed with the action execution here I think this has easily the best bending in the series and I was hooton and or hollerin when they actually did the ladder jumping sequence and it looked good too just something I easily could have seen them say nah that's too hard we'll change it I particularly loved the expanded sequence where a and Zuko chat the whole added storyline of Zuko's Avatar Journal was a cool choice and in complimenting his drawings that's really great stuff very in character and I liked Zuko sort of relenting and accepting that praise and validation something he isn't used to receiving it's just worked really well all around okay we got to talk about Boomie another victim of just completely foolish characterization changes I understand wanting to Showcase a character who blames a for disappearing on the world that's a pretty natural thing for people in these circumstances to feel but forcing that role on Boomie makes him an entirely different character Boomie tries to teach Ang a lesson by by challenging him to a fight to the death even more baffling he chastises a for just wanting to goof off instead of taking his job as the Avatar seriously we're talking about Boomie the guy whose entire first episode in the OG is an elaborate prank SL Lon who cares about oh saving the world now more fun to Goof Off am I right and even more frustrating is that so many of his criticisms towards Ang make no sense given the events of this show Ang is almost never shown goofing off we get brief moments of him playing with kids in the Water Tribe and on Koshi Island we get one little splash fight with qara but in general a is incredibly focused on his goal in this adaptation which is actually something the writers of the adaptation claimed was an intentional shift in Focus avoiding the side distractions that were featured in the original which just makes no sense if you're going to have a character then also berate Ang for being distracted without showing it of course I don't hate the idea behind this boomy and Ang in action because everything is so condensed it's a nice thought to have a be forced to reckon with the ways he's hurt his friend in his absence but there has got to have been a way to do this without throwing boom's initial characterization out the window he just feels like an entirely different person here let it fall H and learn what it means to be the Avatar might be time to talk about the secret tunnel this is actually something pulled from season 2 and oh boy was its purpose in the story changed entirely and to be honest I don't hate the idea of using the secret tunnel for qara and Saka to work out their own issues as brother and sister that's a pretty reasonable adjustment to make kind of creative I also really loved the cave painting animated sequence that explained the secret tunnels that was really beautifully done however it definitely makes me question what their intentions are in the shipping Department especially given that they served up this thick slab of zutara bait nashu the cave of Two Lovers is obviously a major step in anging guitar's budding romance and this new series has pointedly avoided all hints of their Romance thus far I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing my gut says they're sort of holding off until a looks less like an actual child probably a smart move and with the seasons taking longer to make and the writers anticipating timeline story changes to accommodate this I hope they're simply pushing this off until the characters and actors are older however it's hard to imagine that they haven't entertained the idea of pivoting to zutara thanks to the massive shipping culture built around them and look ship whoever you want but I think this would be such a slap in the face to the story and lore of the franchise and it would be hard to imagine since they've paid such close attention to Kyoshi and coro's entire expanded history for them to say screw it to the literal protagonist of the show they obviously would never be able to do a Kora followup if they actually went through with zutara or if they did it would simply be an entirely different story okay let's talk the other avatars again real quick I did like the quick glimpses we got of the past avatars in this a bit more substantial than in the original show and I personally didn't hate the fact that they changed roku's Rampage in the animated show to a Kyoshi focused t takeover as a fan of Koshi it was exciting to see her showcase her abilities even if I'm not sure it served the story sometimes I can turn my brain off and Fanboy out a little bit I do wish the characterization of Koshi and coric offered a bit more than we got however both characters felt very stoic and I know the original show also portrayed them as stoic but given that they were actually diving into the novels for backstory information it would have been nice if they shifted their personalities a tad to match the stuff established in those stories they just felt like these ancient statuesque figureheads and not like real characters unlike Roku who had a ton of personality in his one scene and pop on one leg unfortunately Roku is the one former Avatar whose personality we see lots of in the original series and this just feels completely different than what we got if you're going to adjust the past Avatar's personalities I don't understand why you would choose to change the most defined and keep in place the least defined I am very curious about their decision to pull so many story aspects from future Seasons into season 1 as well I mentioned I respected the idea to try and Implement more oai and aula in this early however I'm not really sure it strengthens either of their characters I did think it was interesting to see the way oai pit his kids against each other the way he motivates isula by giving Zuko undo praise something he obviously would never do in Zuko's presence but I fear that the show is attempting to make aula a little bit more sympathetic which was always one of the strengths of aula as a villain I think a lot of projects these days struggle to just allow villains to be bad and aula was an amazing character because she was so unabashedly awful I was also surprised they decided to explicitly show the events of ka's death something not shown until season 3 in the original series but it sort of felt like the show was struggling to find an emotional Center for qara who sadly seemed to have the least actual character development over these Eight Episodes they really focused on her relationship with her mother and I guess they wanted to really expound on that early instead of saving it for later I was very confused by their use of Wang shiong in the spirit world I love the character and I love the character model and design here he looked looked great but he's just playing an entirely different role in this felt very out of place very shoehorned in fact the entire use of the spirit world is kind of a mess I was so bummed to see them butcher the message of hai's Rampage they used Hai but sort of ignored the most important aspects of the lessons that both he and a learned in the process and by combining it with other spirit world storylines they just made the entire thing a convoluted mess changing lore so that qara and Saka can enter the spirit world bypassing hey's story to implement Co the face dealer and make that storyline the reason that a needs to visit Roku it just felt like they were floundering to implement popular parts of the first season and managed to really butcher why those parts were impactful K the face dealer was at the very least very cool a great looking model seriously captured the terrifying nature of the original very very well and I love that they implemented references to the mother of Faces in this story also honestly it really makes me wonder if they intend to use some of the story in lore from the graphic novel Trilogy the search which is the Avatar follow-up that finally answers the question of what happened to Zuko's mother given that it's the one major unanswered question from the original series and one that fans were very upset was left unanswered in the show itself I wouldn't be surprised if they actually chose to incorporate it into the story a bit earlier in the live action adaptation the mother of faces is a very blatant reference specifically to what happened to Zuko's mother as a fan of the expanded material it would at the very least be really interesting to see adapted especially because it appears as though the upcoming Avatar Studios projects don't intend to adapt the graphic novels oh yeah yeah one more slightly big issue I know they're abandoning the labeled book SL season titles in this remake so this isn't technically the Water season but uh why didn't a attempt to water bend even one time very strange Choice the fact that he sort of forced to rapidly develop his bending skills is such an important part of the original narrative it's weird to ignore it almost entirely all right let's wrap up by talking about the finale I do think all things considered the finale events were adapted somewhat well the way they opted to expand the story about the northern water tribe sexist ban on women water benders was I think an effective change making it less about qara specifically as some kind of exception to the rule and more about changing the culture as a whole actually a pretty smart move even though her battle with paku was super underwhelming compared to the original I also cannot pretend I didn't enjoy seeing Ang Go full Kaiju mode the VFX looked pretty damn cool it still looks better animated but a great effort nonetheless and I appreciated the expanded context of UA's Ascension to the moon the idea that if she didn't a would be stuck fused with the ocean spirit this massive destructive Kaiju that would wander the ocean forever seeking its pair that doesn't exist anymore it's a cool idea but as a whole this series lacks cohesion in its characterization and themes and I think this is largely on the writing it has some of the worst examples of overly expository dialogue I've seen in years its favorite thing to do is truly tell not show it certainly adapted the events of the original series but it didn't do so in a way that truly understands the underlying themes and ideas behind find avatar The Last Airbender it was a genuinely very frustrating watch for me I think what makes me saddest about this adaptation is that it's ultimately going to have the exact opposite effect on its audience that the original did Nickelodeon's avatar The Last Airbender is absolutely a kids show but people go into it expecting something juvenile only to be shocked to discover that it is filled with Incredible characters themes and messages a nuanced portrayal of the realities of war and imperialism and some incredibly outstanding action it's a kids show that can be enjoyed by people of all ages but the way this Netflix version is framed as this big Epic Fantasy on the same scale as Game of Thrones is going to have countless newcomers take a look at the franchise and because it doesn't handle any of those things nearly as well as the original they'll ultimately decide damn this is just for kids I truly just struggle to determine why these liveaction adaptations are ever necessary my question is if the show is going to tell the same story but sacrifice the quality of action Characters themes and storylines if it's not capable of doing anything better than or even as well as the original why should it exist what is the point I am obviously a massive fan of the franchise and I will absolutely be watching the entirety of Netflix's adaptation as long as they make it I'm too curious about the ways they may choose to change the story and if nothing else Netflix's version of the show has absolutely reinvigorated my love for the original I know that's a bit of a backhanded compliment but it once again has me Jones into to rewatch both shows reread the graphic novels and books pour over the art books and get hyped for the upcoming Avatar Studios projects that are on the horizon look I know this was very negative and rooted in my love for the original series I have issues with the changes in characterization but I really hope this series can win me over by selling me on the changes they've made I would love to see season 2 of the live action series write the ship a bit in regards to how this story is being adapted and I am cheering for it even if I didn't like what they delivered this time and that is about all I've got for you thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you next time peace John he talks cartoons he's a really cool fellow he keeps you posted on adult cartoons if that's what you're into then grab a spoon and a very big bowl of your favorite cereal feels like Saturday morning cartoon material Johnny TOS watch him on YouTube now enjoy the Grove van Bust the Move

Channel: Johnny 2 Cellos

Views: 203,459

Keywords: Avatar, Avatar The Last Airbender, Netflix Avatar, Netflix Last Airbender, Avatar Last Airbender Reboot, New Avatar, New Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Avatar Studios, Iroh, Zuko, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Sokka sexist, Suki, Sokka Suki, Zutara, Kataang, Kyoshi Fight, Avatar Kuruk, Avatar Kyoshi, Avatar Roku, Azula, Ozai, Jet, Live Action Avatar, Live Action Last Airbender, Avatar Spirit World, Avatar Finale, Zuko's Mom, Mother of Faces, Koh the Face Stealer, Katara vs Paku, Koiju

Id: Trjl_5UAgT8

Length: 34min 15sec (2055 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024