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#again talking about original atla zuko here
doyouevenshipbr0 · 1 month
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examples of atla live action’s attempts to be more feminist and how they actually had the opposite effect and/or hurt the integrity of the show
already talked about katara and pakku. does not make sense that she did not have a master. point blank. just because something sounds empowering (ie katara saying “yes. and ur looking at her.” after zuko asked if she found a master) doesn’t mean it automatically is. there still needs to be logic and katara “being her own master” defies logic imo im sorry!
katara in general. she has no ferocity here which to be very honest i dont think is fully the writers’ fault. some of the blame goes on them but the actress for katara just delivered alllllll of her lines w the same exact mild tone. katara is overly motherly. she is bossy. she is passionate. she is nurturing. she is emotional. THERE IS POWER IN THESE THINGS!!!!! why would we take away her spark?!?!?!
i loved live action suki. however, i LOVE the line in the original when her and sokka part ways and sokka says “i treated u like a girl when i should’ve treated u like a warrior.” and suki says “i am a warrior” *kisses sokka on the cheek* “but im a girl too.” THAT LINE WAS SO PERFECT like lemme say it again there is POWER IN FEMININITY! there is no shame in that!!!!! why does this show wanna take that away so badly. at one point live action suki says something like “im not just a warrior, im a kiyoshi warrior” and before she parts ways w sokka she thanks him for showing her some of the world or something like that. which was fine but i just love the simplicity of the original. a girl can be a warrior and have a crush. why do we have to change that?
this is a small one and it doesnt REALLY matter, but i cant help but think they changed this to be more “feminist” which is just dumb. yue isnt betrothed? well she was but she broke it off? and hahn (her ex) isnt a huge dick? i mean it wasn’t the worst thing and i didnt really mind it but i was just kinda like ?????. feel like yue being betrothed tied into her sense of responsibility and foreshadowed the sacrifices she will make for her people. so. feels rly weird that they changed it. i think it was to show more women agency which is always cool. but in the original, yue finally gets her agency by becoming the moon spirit. that should be the end of her character arc. idk. a weird change that seemed unnecessary.
sokka not being sexist. honestly i think the live action did a good job at omitting this while not REALLY making it feel like something was missing. with that being said, something was still missing lol. once again, its apart of sokka’s character. i feel like everyone has already expressed their hate for this so ill just leave it at that.
i am a TAD indifferent on the women of the northern tribe joining the forces during the fight. on one hand i cant lie i smiled bc obviously i love water bending and i love women so there was definitely apart of me that was happy to see that moment. however. it was kind of giving like in endgame when theres that random shot of all the women superheroes in one frame so the movie could have a “slay queen. we are girlbosses:)” moment. like it just felt a little empty and it wasnt the feminist battlecry they thought it was. these women have been healing their whole lives. why would they be any good on the frontlines of a fight? they never learned combat skills! HOWEVER, when we see them, its mainly just them reinforcing the walls so like. that makes enough sense. im cool w that.
i know im dwelling but as we know i hold atla in the highest regards. it does a lot of things perfectly imo. and one of the things i think it does PERFECTLY is its treatment of female characters. literally the only thing i can think of that i dont like is when team azula beats the kiyoshi warriors and ty lee says something like “u are NOT prettier than us” NDBSKSJDJ like ok that was weird. but anyways. it irritates me how the live action kind of seems to have this pov that says “the original was good, but there were some ideas and plots that were outdated so we changed them to keep with the times” like they’re fixing something that was broken if that makes sense. when in actuality, i think atla’s representation of women is perfect and timeless. it was relevant and powerful in 2005, and it is equally as relevant and powerful in 2024. there was nothing about its feminist themes that needed to be “fixed” or “updated”.
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seyaryminamoto · 19 days
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Azula's most overlooked characterization element
Why, hello there.
It is I.
And I'm back on my bullshit.
I didn't WANT to be. But a bunch of factors pulled me back in.
For the record: I'm not here to start any fights or light the fuse of arguments that I most likely won't have time or interest in responding to. What I AM here for... is to prove that there's something out there a bunch of people are delighted to sleep on because acknowledging it would render maaaany simplistic interpretations entirely invalid...
That group of people includes the fandom, of course. And the original show's staff. And the liveaction's staff, to a fault. Surely the TTRPG ones too. And absolutely, the comic book writers.
Hell, I'll even include MYSELF in that group, even though I'm making this post right now.
I found it really curious that I very recently saw this element mentioned in a pretty neat blog I follow, @atla-lore-archive, I absolutely advise anyone who hasn't checked out said archive to do it if you wish to understand a lot of the "extra lore" the fandom had access to, back in the old days when the turbonick ATLA site still existed and used to be the only source of deeper knowledge about the fandom besides the occasional interview that most people didn't even know where to track down.
But the funny thing is that the post I'm talking about proved that even Turbonick forgot about the people this post is about :')
And that would beeeeeeee...
*cue drumroll*
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Lo and Li!
What makes Lo and Li an important subject to discuss?
Why, a lot of things. Among them, the fact that almost nobody brings them into the core focus of any analysis made about Azula's character. I've personally mentioned them once or twice I believe, mostly as negatives, there's but ONE positive aspect I've ever found of them: them being non-benders MIGHT be a reason why Azula isn't shown as being quite so obsessive with firebending supremacy as Zuko was supposed to be.
But that's very much the sole good thing I can think to say about them and it's completely subjective, as good as a headcanon, because we don't even KNOW if they influenced Azula in that sense!
Why do they seem to get overlooked quite as much? Why... let's start thinking about it, shall we?
Lo and Li are Azula's firebending teachers. As far as anyone can tell, they're also her advisors. These two people should be an essential part of Azula's life... but ironically, we seldom see them with her. Most times, Azula isn't around these two. Whenever she is? It doesn't usually look like she's having a good time.
And that's no surprise, considering her first scene with those two very much puts forward a dynamic of cold distance between Azula and her mentors: Azula is bending LIGHTNING. We have not heard of other lightningbenders until that point, and once the full show wraps up, there's only THREE (Azula, Ozai, Iroh). Out of those three? Only one is a fourteen-year-old girl. It's very easy to assume Azula's lightning is actually a skill she mastered unusually early in life, perhaps relatively recently, hence the practicing... but she's pulling it off. She's succeeding. She's doing something that genuinely catches a first-time viewer off-guard!
And Lo and Li's entire opinion of what she did is: "Almost perfect. One hair out of place."
This tells you the Fire Nation's idea of "imperfection" is... insane. Strict. Imposing. Unyielding. Unforgiving. Azula's reaction isn't to get angry at Lo and Li for saying what they did: it's to get angry at herself and try again.
But... that's not the only instance where we see Azula getting angry around Lo and Li.
The next few times Azula is around them, she doesn't seem to have much of an emotional reaction (one is when they tell her to find other allies, the other when they herald her as a great hero who returned home from Ba Sing Se). In the second of these scenes, Lo and Li are praising Azula as incredible, beautiful, all sorts of grand things...! And Azula smiles. She smiles at the crowd. She's not smiling at the old ladies who are praising her... she's mostly just happy to know her people are welcoming her as a hero indeed! Most the fandom would go "true! what an ungrateful bitch! She should've been happy that Lo and Li complimented her that way!!" Me? I wouldn't say that at all. Not just because I love Azula to pieces? But because the only information we have of Azula's dynamics with these two... doesn't seem compatible with the idea that what Lo and Li are saying here is for AZULA'S benefit.
Anyone who's had a hypocritical parent/caretaker/teacher must have endured awkward, horrible, unpleasant moments where this adult figure treats you like shit in private but in public holds you as this grand example, and a perfect child, and they never seem to stop saying they're soooo proud of you even though you NEVER felt that what they're saying is true. Maybe the first few times, you're naive enough to believe it. By the tenth time of incongruent messages? You start to realize they're talking you up as a way to make themselves look better. They're trying to show they're doing their job at raising you/training you, be it whatever it may. The praises are not FOR you... they're for a third person to hear and think "Oh, this adult's so cool, saying nice things about this kid they're responsible for! Nice!"
... You're starting to get the picture now, I'm sure.
Lo and Li reappear in the Beach. Azula is notably chill, enjoying the ride, talking casually with Ty Lee, telling Zuko to lighten up and to stop taking Ozai's choices personally, right? She seems... content. Relaxed.
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Then, everything changed when Lo and Li attacked.
We don't even see why Azula is making this face at first. But she does it AT ONCE when their ship reaches the dock.
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Who is there indeed...?
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The stars of our post! :') if it isn't our elderly twin ladies... who brought Azula to a very disappoting beach house. And when Azula sees the house in question, she makes THIS face.
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Judge however you may... even Ty Lee is weirded out by the beach house, going by that expression. Zuko and Mai aren't impressed either. But Azula? The look on her face isn't merely disappointment if you ask me... part of it looks a bit like embarrassment too? This isn't at all what she was expecting when she arrived (she has her old beach house for standards, which makes this extra underwhelming, I'm sure). She counts on Lo and Li to provide them with a place to stay, it goes implicit... and then this is what they do. It most likely isn't what she promised the other three in terms of where they'd stay, hence, I'd dare say there's a component of embarrassment here.
Shortly afterwards, we have our well known scene with Azula being utterly unconcerned with Lo and Li's apparent wisdom to the point of yawning over it. This, too, tells you she's just not interested in whatever those two have to say or bring to the table. Then, they show up again at mealtime and I think Azula just ignores them the whole scene.
After this? Lo and Li vanish until the finale. And what do they do in the finale? Why... it's the first time anyone expresses a verbal concern over Azula's wellbeing! Ah! A sign that Lo and Li have SOME affection for Azula! This time, you pesky Azula fans, you CAN'T twist this into a bad thing! For sure!
... Can't we, tho? :')
What IS Azula's reaction to: "We are concerned for your wellbeing"?
"My father asked you to come here and talk to me, didn't he‌? He thinks I can't handle the responsibility of being Fire Lord. But I will be the greatest leader in Fire Nation history."
And here, my friends, is when we have finally hit the jackpot.
Lo and Li could have been Azula's Irohs. She could've had TWO of him! Then you'd say: "hey! Ozai is such a dick he let Azula have two elderly wise ladies guiding her but only gave one old wise dude to Zuko! Rude!" and it would be further proof of Ozai's favoritism of Azula, right?
... But actually?
Lo and Li are no such thing. Lo and Li aren't moral compasses for Azula in the least. Lo and Li are not beacons of wisdom that genuinely help her sort her way through life. Worth noting: THEY COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN THAT WAY. They're not. They're not part of mysterious secret societies, they don't help Azula in any objective, significant, tangible way... there's very much nothing to say they EVER fulfilled the role Iroh did for Zuko. What role, then, were they fulfilling instead?
Why... I think we ought to listen to Azula, shouldn't we?
My take: Lo and Li are OZAI'S STAND-INS.
Someone's going to say "hey why would you assume that when Azula said this in the middle of a breakdown?? Surely she was just DELUSIONAL and PARANOID and ashdgkadhsgkjgh...!"
... Let me counter that one with a fun little analysis excercise:
WHY are Lo and Li Azula's firebending teachers and advisors?
The finale very directly tells us these two are not benders. We could've assumed they were! They're not: Azula's teachers are non-benders.
Has a single person out there ever asked themselves WHY this is the case?
How the hell is Azula, prodigy of the blue fire, epic lightning, cruel and powerful and precise and deadly bending... training under two elderly nonbenders?
Bringing this to a real-life example: do you remember what it was like when you were in P.E. classes and your teacher told you to spend 20 minutes jogging, and if you ever stopped you had to do 20 crunches and then get back to the jogging, and every time you stopped he'd tell you the same thing and you'd want that guy to vanish from the face of the planet? I don't know if that was only my experience, but I rather doubt it.
What did kids typically think/say when that happened?
"I wanna see that old fart doing the same shit he's making us do..."
It's a headcanon indeed to say that this is how Azula must have felt over Lo and Li, but it's VERY likely to be the case. But I'd dare say, in Azula's case, it's even worse because, to put it in another way? It's like taking programming lessons from someone who's never learned a programming language. They'll tell you you're getting things wrong without knowing how to help you get them right because they just DON'T KNOW what you're doing, and are outright INCAPABLE of what you're trying to achieve. They can't offer good guidance based on experience because they have ZERO experience on that subject! And yet they want PERFECTION from you! They expect it!
Lo and Li are these teachers for Azula. We only see them in one scene? And yet everything in the rest of the show suggests that they bring nothing important to the table for Azula, be it professionally, be it personally, be it emotionally... not in any aspect of life.
And this, if you ask me, is why the OG show barely ever brings them into scenes. Why the comics flat-out forgot they existed and even featured people like Sozin and Azulon in Azula's beach hallucinations but NOT the two ladies who looked after her and trained her. Why the live-action didn't even FEATURE them.
And us? The fandom? The fic writers?
I HAVE NO IDEA WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I READ A FIC THAT HAD LO AND LI INVOLVED IN IT.
I'm not even saying as main characters, I don't even know if that exists, frankly: I mean as minor, or background characters. I have NOT seen those two be used in basically ANY fics I've read. I've scarcely used them in mine! In fact, I PURPOSEFULLY got rid of them early on in Gladiator because I didn't want them to sabotage and get in the way of Azula's progress as a character and I believed they'd do exactly that. They were an obstacle rather than anything useful, so I did away with them and then realized they could still occasionally serve some purpose in certain situations: I even had Azula visit them once and they were actually helpful! Fancy that! But... that's it. That's as far as I could go with them. I can't do MORE with those two because they're not characters one particularly feels compelled to work with.
And from what I've seen? That's the case for everyone.
So, I ask again:
WHY ARE THEY THERE?
WHAT IS THEIR ROLE?
WHAT IS THE POINT OF AZULA HAVING NON-BENDING TEACHERS?
Let's go further and further into logical thinking here, shall we?
Azula is a child. Fourteen years of age at the time she's introduced in the OG show.
Azula has no power over many things around her, particularly, her upbringing. That's in the hands of the adults around her. Her mother, up until she vanished, had some hand in it, then, it all falls to Ozai.
Ozai has been Azula's sole parental figure since Ursa left.
Ozai is the one who would reasonably call the shots regarding Azula's education, as all parents are wont to do... ESPECIALLY when he's a king with absolute power over his children.
... so, Lo and Li? Ozai either gave them the position as Azula's teachers personally, or someone else (Ursa) did, and Ozai either didn't WANT to remove them from the role (cue "Ozai being sentimental over Ursa" theories), or Ozai didn't give a flying fuck about who was training his daughter (cue "Ozai is an abusive dick without a heart or a brain" theories).
Anyone, of course, would likely interject here to say surely Ozai ALSO trained Azula himself because that's what he'd do with his favorite kid, right? See. I don't even disagree with that notion.
BUT IT'S A HEADCANON.
We have zero evidence that Ozai trained her! None! I totally will write that into Azula's backstory in many of my stories, but there's NOTHING in canon to suggest this actually happened and that Ozai was genuinely, actively, frequently involved in her progress as a firebender. Assuming he HAD to be is, still, a headcanon. You can't say that with any more certainty than mine when I say I believe Azula loves spicy foods. Does it seem to be something that would fit with her character? I think so! But if eventually canon goes "AZULA CAN'T STAND SPICY FOODS LOL JOKE'S ON YOU!" I... can't even say a thing about it. People's food tastes aren't reflective of their personalities. They really could do whatever they want in that respect. And that's the case for ANYTHING that isn't part of the show's storytelling or the character backgrounds or any texts we consider canon!
POINT BEING: Ozai, regardless of what you want to headcanon, had Lo and Li as Azula's teachers. HIS FAVORITE CHILD... and her only official instructors are two non-benders. Yang added Kunyo as an old instructor of Azula's when she was young, sure! But Kunyo was sooooo qualified that baby Azula was already kicking his ass. So, for that matter? He doesn't really seem to have been a cornerstone of her firebending development and the only other known teachers for Azula are Lo and Li.
For the last time: Azula's teachers are NON-BENDERS. AS CHOSEN, SANCTIONED, APPROVED AND ACCEPTED BY OZAI.
And with those two remarking on absolutely STUPID stuff like "one hair out of place"? Azula still became the incredible firebender she was.
Cue, now, the irony where Zuko was stuck in the basics 3 years after setting out of the Fire Nation... WITH IROH ACTIVELY SERVING AS HIS MENTOR.
You're not gonna tell me that Lo and Li would EVER be better instructors than Iroh, or are you? Because that makes no sense. Full-stop. Iroh is supposed to be the most profound and complete firebender thorughout the show because he's spiritually enlightened even though I admit I think that's bullshit and he doesn't just teach Zuko how to set things on fire, he actually makes him learn theory and spirituality and his teachings are more profound than just "ONE HAIR OUT OF PLACE".
So.
Banished as he is, disgraced and seen as trash by Ozai, Zuko STILL has a better teacher than Azula does.
... Is this LOGICAL? Is this NORMAL? Does this make SENSE?
If you think Ozai's favoritism of Azula takes the shape of "I'll give you every little thing you ask for, sweetheart, I love you very much, here, have ten million doll houses so you can set them on fire, and all the ponies you ask for and on your next birthday I'll buy you a baby dragon and you'll get your own region of the Fire Nation to govern and a fancy title..."?
Then Lo and Li, unfortunately, are right here to be a HUGE contradiction with your interpretation of Ozai and Azula's relationship.
Azula should have THE BEST teachers. Azula does not. Azula doesn't even LIKE them. Azula is openly shown to dislike them! To be annoyed around them, ANGRY when they're teaching her, she feels they're here to keep tabs on her for her father! In a sense, they're Ozai's SPIES on her! :')
Hence? Ozai's favoritism of Azula MIGHT not be what everyone keeps pretending it is. Maybe Ozai didn't do everything to make Azula get things EASILY... and to be fair? That's not what Zuko said anyway. People interpreted it that way... but that's not REALLY what he says:
"Everything always came easy to her. She's a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. "
Every line in this statement is absolutely questionable and all of it sounds like buuuuullshit to me. This is ZUKO'S perspective. And sorry not sorry, but it's tell-don't-show. People swear by his opinion of Azula and pretend he's absolutely objective about it. He's not.
But "Everything always came easy to her," does not mean "EVERYTHING WAS ALWAYS HANDED OVER TO HER ON A SILVER PLATTER." And yet this is what the fandom has constantly interpreted it as.
Azula might just be a prodigy. Maybe she started out ten steps ahead of her brother: this does not mean she needs no guidance, no training, no help. She's seen training herself over perfectionism in her very second scene of Book 2. And the guidance she gets in order to achieve perfection is actually, objectively, stupid.
This is what Ozai chose for her. This is an OBSTACLE for her growth, just as much as Lo and Li were obstacles for me when I was starting with Gladiator! Azula doesn't have it EASY: she just works herself so damn hard that even shit that should HINDER her does NOT do that. And even when her brother objectively has spent THREE YEARS with an advantage in the shape of being trained by one of the VERY BEST firebenders out there? Azula is still beating Zuko at it. With two non-benders as her teachers.
Where am I going with all this?
To the fact that Lo and Li are overlooked in just about every instance of the fandom.
To the fact that nobody includes them, and their influence on Azula, in their analyses of who Azula is.
I've seen a shitstorm rising over the Netflix characterization of Azula: SHE'S TOO ANGRY, they say. Non-stop. She's sooooo hysterical, all the time! She's just pissed perpetually!
Well. I haven't finished the show yet. But the scenes I've seen Azula in so far? They don't fit the fandom's view of Azula because...
... they're not taking Lo and Li into account.
As usual.
:')
Azula's reactions around Lo and Li being frustration, anger, irritation EVEN in scenes like The Beach, where Azula was FINE until she sees them? That shit is storytelling that went over sooooooo many heads, EVEN MINE! When I saw people going on about how canon Azula is... not insecure? Not angry? Has no frustrations and was only ever smirking 24/7? I... didn't feel that was right. I knew it wasn't right. And when I thought about it hard enough? I realized that one reason why this interpretation of Azula is IMMEDIATELY dismissable is because of Lo and Li: those two constantly made Azula angry. Even if that wasn't their intent, it's nonetheless the effect they'd have on her. And Azula didn't like having them around. She CLEARLY didn't appreciate them the way Zuko does Iroh, for instance! And this could be taken as a flaw on Azula's part... if we EVER saw evidence that these two ladies actually love Azula as a grandchild, or so. If we had any evidence that they actually have cared for her in ways nobody else ever did. If maybe the ones Zuko talks about, upon saying "EVERYONE LOVES AZULA" were these two! And maybe he was jealous of them! Maybe he wanted two old ladies to watch his every move and tell him his every flaw!
... Clearly I'm joking about that last thing, but anyway...
There's nothing to tell us Lo and Li were anything but Ozai's assigned watchdogs to keep control and tabs over Azula. That Azula's immediate reaction upon hearing that someone cares about her is "Oh fuck off, my dad sent you here because he doesn't trust me!" is... telling. It's not just paranoia speaking, even if it sure can be read that way! It's actually Azula's perception of those two, which is 100% supported by what we saw of the twins throughout the show, WHENEVER we did see them: their roles in Azula's life are indeed to keep tabs on her, to keep her under control, to pressure her into perfection, AS OZAI'S AGENTS! Seen this way, it MAKES SENSE for Azula to disregard their concern and immediately assume it's FAKE. She isn't even shown to doubt it, never questions that MAYBE they did care about her! She assumes they don't...
... And considering that, as far as I know, the official concept is that they BOTH LEFT when Azula banished one of them only? That they didn't contest her command, staying to look after her even if she only wanted one? I mean, clearly Azula can't tell them apart, so they could've taken turns: one watches over Azula for 12 hours and the other for the next 12 hours, I don't goddamn know! But they didn't do that. They LEFT. And if they left? It means they don't care remotely as much as they say they do. Not to the point where they'd challenge Azula's orders and help her when they KNOW she's not okay.
And all of this further supports my point.
When we see Azula in the liveaction being angry, bitter, irritable at Ozai's choices?
I see a reflection of the same dynamics that the OG too subtly weaved into Azula's relationship with Lo and Li. I see Azula reacting against Ozai's control over her because she feels it's DISTRUST. She feels it means her father STILL needs to be convinced that she's competent, powerful, ready to do his bidding. It isn't a case where Azula's irritation comes from wanting to rebel against her father... it's Azula wanting her father to UNDERSTAND that she's 100% his supporter and will put everything on the line to serve him and the Fire Nation.
And it's very damn easy to read that exact same thing into Azula's dynamics with Lo and Li as it is to see it EXPLICITLY STATED in the liveaction.
My point?
What the liveaction did is not nearly as much of a distant characterization choice as people think it is.
Ozai is Azula's Achilles' Heel. Everything she became, everything she grew up to be, was for his sake. He molded her to become those things and simply didn't give a shit about raising a daughter, he treated her as a weapon, and absolutely pitted his children against each other, just as much as OTHER adults in their lives did. But the impact of Ozai on Azula in the OG is easy to ignore. Why? Because we SELDOM see them interacting. Because we don't get that side of Azula's character fully explored. Because they didn't want to explore Ozai's character either! They were as cheap as they could be with all these aspects and so, only the people who really got into analyzing things on a deeper level would be able to say, without a doubt, that Ozai abused Azula emotionally with all the expectations and demands he put on his own child. Through the golden child-scapegoat dynamic that people have been bringing up non-stop in the past years.
So, proving herself to her father is what Azula wants to do, more than anything. Proving worthy of his favor, of his approval, is the closest thing she can get to feeling loved. Which is depressing as fuck. Azula gets zero affection: it's not even conditional affection, there's NOTHING for her besides approving words if she gets anything right. And this show's work with Azula's character? It was meant to make these things less invisible to all the fans who like to pretend none of it exists. And yes, I've seen them, crawling all over Twitter shitting themselves in fits of rage because how dare that show pretend Azula EVER had a bad time in her perfect flawless life!!
Well, the irony is that the OG gives you a smidge of evidence -- and yet that's enough -- to show that Ozai was doing very similar things to Azula in ATLA, and her reactions to it?
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Huh. No smirks for Lo and Li.
No smirks for the symbols of Ozai's control over her life.
It's almost like the confidence, the smirks, the apparent ease with which she handles everything? Is a front that crumbles easily whenever it concerns the ONE PERSON with power over her life.
I don't believe, worth noting, that Azula's power comes from rage. I've seen people say that in fandom in the past and I find it a completely absurd take when Iroh himself spells out that her bending is about control, about precision, and it's Azula's FURY that makes her a sloppy mess in the finale. It's even INTENTIONAL that when she shoots lightning a second time, in her second establishing scene, THAT SAME HAIR FALLS OUT OF PLACE. She's still angry. She didn't get it "right" this time either. She's imperfect and she's trying NOT to be, but she cannot succeed. And upon bending lightning with emotions (rage/frustration)? That hair falls YET AGAIN out of place. Proof that she's not going to achieve the perfection she's being FORCED (indeed, by her father and the people who are here to represent him, Lo and Li) to strive for.
The liveaction had Ozai pushing Azula for a perfection she couldn't attain either. She's perfectly content in her cruelty at Ozai's side, right until she hears the Avatar was found and that Zuko has a shot at taking away the privileges she's been basking in so far. That she WASN'T nervous about this in canon is pretty damn obvious: OZAI SENT HER TO HUNT ZUKO DOWN FOR BEING A FAILURE. We never saw her reaction to learning that the Avatar was out and about. We have noooo idea what was canonically going on with her back then. The first time we see her besides the flashback is Azula receiving a mission that tells her she's STILL #1 and Zuko is no threat to her because Ozai thinks he's a failure. Thus? She had nothing to fear. Here? Ozai is actively using Zuko as bait to pressure Azula further. And if you're so confident in Ozai's good parenting skills as to believe he somehow WOULDN'T do that? Sounds like you don't understand the very basic and simplistic Fire Lod Ozai from ATLA, and that's not something to be proud of. So probably stop screaming your bad takes at the top of your lungs, because being incapable of understanding Ozai in canon is not a badge of pride, just saying...
FINAL POINT...
This post is not written expressly in the defense of the liveaction and its characterization of Azula. To this point, what I've seen of it doesn't feel WRONG or OFF unless you're the kind of person who thinks Azula is only capable of smirking and if she stops doing that she stops existing or something. Only people who cannot understand the depth, nuance, subtleties in Azula's story would ever be claiming that Azula's relationship with Ozai COUDLN'T be like this, or that Azula couldn't possibly be frustrated with her father or his choices when it's soooo clear what Ozai is going for, and why it's working. But in order to read Azula as a character capable of this range of emotion, frustration and ambition, all at once? You have to be able to treat this character, be it in the liveaction or the OG show, as a human being.
And that's what most the people criticizing this specific change are determined not to do. It's what makes them uncomfy. It's what rustles their jimmies.
Yes. I'm saying it in this very demeaning way because I actually find it quite ridiculous to be this insecure over the portrayal of a fictional 14yo in two TV shows. Whether the liveaction sticks the landing or fails catastrophically, I do not know... but I do know that if it's forcing a bunch of people to rethink Azula's character, and making them panic at the idea that she could EVER have human emotions, even if they're AWFUL human emotions?
Then I'm afraid you're only convincing me that, as bad as that show could ever get? It's getting SOMETHING right. I do love to see misinterpretations of Azula getting slammed in the face by the reality that all those beliefs, headcanons and takes in bad faith are actively, categorically untrue: none of which makes Azula a fundamentally good person, worth noting! But it makes it very clear that reading her as a one-dimensional basic villain, which is what the anti-Azula-redemption crowd actively does, is literally only possible if you overlook, ignore and fail to understand her character and her complexities, be it in the liveaction or in the original show.
There. I said my piece.
Another post, regarding the rest of the liveaction, is bound to come later. I'd say stay tuned but it might take me a while to write it at all. So... wait around and maybe you'll see it someday!
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nono-bunny · 3 months
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Here's something to consider: Do you think Bryke were kicked out of Netflix's LA ATLA because they were toxic during the whole set? I saw an article on Instagram saying they were fired because they were unproductive, hard to deal with, and were rude most of the time. I sincerely BELIEVE that this is what happened to cause them to leave, because of how you heard all of Mike's jerk ramblings on things (Zutara) and how he and Bryan were praised for the show. I'm thinking Bryke couldn't handle the criticism and Netflix wanted something different to the story but still wanted to keep the story of Avatar intact. Which makes you think...what could make Bryke so adamant about not wanting to change anything? Was it scenes, moments...relationships? Ever since the trailer came out, everything looks fantastic. So WHAT could be so different that made Bryke act like the way they did?
Something to think about. ;)
Thank you for the ask, some interesting points here!
So first of all, I haven't really been active on Instagram since they killed the chronological feed a couple of years ago, so I obviously have no clue what the article you're talking about is and how true it is, but. Yeah, I'd believe that lol, wouldn't be in any way out of character for what I've heard of them and for the rep they've built up over the years
As much as the guests on the podcast are constantly talking about how good at managing the show they were, you also get a very real sense of how rigid they actually are in terms of listening to other people's ideas when they go against their initial ones, even if they would make the show better. Something that really stood out to me is how many times other people are credited for all of the best parts of the show- Zuko's arc being great had nothing to do with them, Iroh's personality was different from what they initially wanted, Toph being a blind girl rather than a huge dudebro (I don't remember if he was also blind or not but like. Regardless they weren't the ones to come up with the Toph we know and love at all)... All of these are things that they've basically admitted to be changes proposed by other people, which they initially resisted. Like!!! They legitimately cannot take the credit for the show's best parts, because they're shit writers- but they have a massive ego because they've been constantly getting praise for shit they didn't do for years. Genuinely they sound like nightmares to work with!!! The cavalier way they dismiss people all the fucking time whenever they disagree with them is just. Really weird for show creators imo, and the way they keep milking the franchise even though they've long since run out of any good ideas- or, really, the ability to execute them in a way that works... Those two fuckers barely worked on anything else worth remembering/noting, so they just keep coming back to the thing that worked once and wondering why they can't get it to work again- and the answer is that they were never the reason why it worked, and they refuse to accept that
As much as I love the original show, it's also incredibly flawed and imo needed many many changes to be deserving of the perfect image it seems to have, and like? I'm genuinely hoping that the changes Netflix make are along those lines rather than like... Sensationalizing it with gratuitous violence or whatever. Zutara would be great, obviously, but... Yeah mostly I just don't want Kataang, and like. I'm being 100% serious when I say that I'm gonna wait for other people to watch the show first so I know if it happens or not, because if it does- I'm just not gonna bother with it.
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sokkastyles · 1 month
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ATLA LA Ep2 Let's go:
I love that they kept a lot of the original music, but one thing I could have done without is the generic three-note chord to signal a cut to a scene with a villainous character. Those specific notes have been parodied too often for me to take it seriously. It's one thing that always jarred me in the original and it is especially jarring in live action to hear music that signifies a cartoon villain is about to walk on screen.
Zuko throwing things and chewing the scenery my beloved
"He ran! He's a coward!" I do love the angle of Zuko being confronted with the reality of what he thought would be a glorious destiny. There are two reasons Zuko associates not fighting with cowardice. One is because of what he believes about the fire nation as a whole, but also because of what his father made him believe about himself.
I do like that Aang is identifying that controlling the Avatar State is a problem he needs to solve. It gives me hope that the writers are trying to actually flesh out that plot point where the original failed. I don't like that there's been no mention yet of him needing to learn waterbending. Which brings me to...
Yes, Katara, it IS unbelievable that you've learned waterbending in a day all because Aang said some mumbo to you about energy. That's why I don't believe it. Katara does grow fast in the original, too, but it still feels organic. Here it doesn't and once again, it feels like they are giving that credit all to Aang and I hate that. I also hate that this is Katara's motivation rather than the Katara who took it upon herself to make sure the Avatar learned waterbending whether he wanted to or not.
There is something missed by Kanna giving Katara the waterbending scroll. Idk, trying not to compare to the original because I did want Kanna to be more active in Katara's life. But I get the same feeling of loss here as Aang already having Appa's whistle. Those two things in the original were part of a point about the tragedy of cultural attrition, that Aang has to buy back a cultural artifact that the seller does not even know the true meaning of, that Katara has to steal hers from pirates who already stole from her culture. It also begs the question that if Kanna had that scroll the whole time, why didn't she show it to Katara before, who was so desperate to learn waterbending?
Zuko talking about being gone three years, clearly ecstatic at the thought that his banishment will come to an end, while Iroh looks like he's about to send his son to his death for the second time. Kudos to the actors' faces expressing so much in that one scene.
The actor for Sokka is very good-looking.
Aang and Katara playing in the water was cute, but they seem even farther apart in maturity here than in the original. Even that scene comes across as a much older sister honoring a young child. I don't get a sense of Katara as someone yearning to be a child.
She's not wrong about the Avatar bringing connections, but Aang showing off isn't really the best illustration of that concept.
Okay, so, I saw some people complaining about Suki wanting to leave home "because of a boy" and like, that also happened in the original. What feels kinda pat here is that we've also added overprotective mom to the mix, which I don't love. When I said I wanted Suki's mom I meant I wanted to know how Suki became a warrior, I wanted to see more women bonding with other women and women's autonomy being treated as normal. Not whatever this is.
So they don't already know Zhao here? That's less interesting. Also "actual royalty." Another log to keep the "Zhao is a royal bastard" theory burning. Heh, burning.
Sokka is still a prick about girls fighting, everyone can rest easy now. Also his reaction when Suki tries to flirt with him the same way he does with her is exactly how that would play out in real life.
Aang avoiding fighting out of fear of his own power adds an interesting dimension to his character which is only briefly touched on in the original.
Zuko and Katara 1v1 yes!!!
Katara flashbacking to her mom's death during her first real fight is a nice touch.
KYOSHI!!!
Zhao wasn't very impressive until Zuko accidentally gave him a foothold, then that shit-eating grin was great.
I'll hold off on really commenting on this because I haven't gotten that far yet, but I heard that Ozai is more willing to praise Zuko here and it just does not make a lot of sense to me, not only because that is not how that kind of parent works, but also because hearing the news from Zhao, who would 100% play up Zuko having discovered and then LOST the Avatar, would just make Ozai see Zuko as more of a failure for having come close. Unless Zuko does something spectacular in the next few episodes I don't see Ozai being impressed.
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willtheartist · 1 month
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Atla live action spoilers
Here are the easter eggs i found (but i wasnt paying much attention so there are probably more). Going from the last ep downwards:
Pretty sure this one's a reference to Toph's Melon Lord, especially considering that right before these jokes they were talking about finding Aang an earthbending teacher
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The Spirit World's lion turtles like the one that will give Aang the knowledge to take Ozai's bending away so he doesn't have to kill him
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Maybe I'm reaching here but this one felt like a nod to the s3 episode "Zuko alone"
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Referencing the few small scenes in og Atla where we see Uncle Iroh and the crew using musical instruments🎼 + a nod to Zuko's ability to play the tsungi horn
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Not really an easter egg but I like how this line reminds me of s3 Zuko fighting Ozai and telling him that he'll help the Avatar and restore the Fire Nation's honour
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Again, this one was probably Not an easter egg either but there's something about Aang saying the line "I hope you can help me, Avatar Roku" while the camera shows (and then zooms in on) Zuko's journal and more specifically on a spread that's mostly about Roku (Zuko's great-grandfather) and even has a drawing of him + one solo eye which could've been some random doodle, Roku's or maybe Zuko's own eye
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An obvious reference to some of the skipped arcs/episodes from the og (pirates + canyon crawlers)
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The music🎵 briefly playing here, while Uncle Iroh has a portrait and the casket of his son Lu Ten to one side and Zuko to the other, being Leaves From The Vine🍃
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And then of course there's the cabbage man🥬! Played by the original actor too! But i've run out of photo space on this post so ajsjsjsksksk
Plus Kyoshi's whole "killing" speech because of that conquerer dude she murdered when creating Kyoshi island.
These are the only ones I personally spotted but I'd love to know the others!
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peony-pearl · 10 months
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"someone PLEASE dare me to talk about the writing of Ursa's story from the comics"
This is your sign, child. Tell me all you've got
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BLESS YOU!!!!!!!!
A bit of a foreword to anyone reading: I am going to be speaking about the writing of Ursa's trials from the comics in a critical light in the ways that her story was chosen to be written this way. If you find any kind of comfort or catharsis in her story, this post may not be for you. I am not here to be an anti, I am here to look at changes made to a character that I think could have been a lot more interesting if she had been allowed to keep her original backstory.
That being said:
Ursa's story of being plucked out of a happy home to marry 'the bad guy' could be interesting!
My problem with it is the inconsistencies it creates in it's own narrative... and the fact that it's such painful woobification of a woman who was willing to commit a high crime to save her son in the way that her circumstances create an issue where she is nothing but a martyr. It also continues the whole 'good lineage vs bad lineage' idea that completely undermines the power of Zuko's arc.
Ursa, in the comics, is presented to us as this bright eyed hopeful actress, in love with a man named Ikem when Azulon rolls up with Ozai, unlike some earlier lore where she was born into royalty and was the perfect match for Ozai. Now she's subjected to a wretched life which I can only imagine they put her through to make her completely sympathetic, because otherwise she would have been just like the rest of the royal family - EVIL.
Which I really hate that train of thought, but this is a family friendly show and as good as atla does with it's good vs evil nuances, I often remember I have to cut it some slack... but then I get a bit more frustrated because of the whole 'just because it's family friendly means they can simplify things' which I also don't care for but again... eh. I can't be too picky at times. (I was also raised on Gargoyles which did a great job on showing villains in sympathetic moments and heroes having big major flaws so I'm already a little biased)
Regardless; completely rewriting Ursa's backstory to the point that we no longer see her view of the war (or Ikem's! So they're good people!! We promise!) just comes off as almost manipulative and middle-school fanfiction-y. Ursa is a good person to sympathize with because she's being forced into these situations :C
And as such, she's a good person because of Roku!! And so Zuko is a good person because his mom loved him so much!!
And such, they don't have to show any changes on Ursa's part. No moral failings, no her and Zuko butting heads once they reunite to show how much he's grown... his morals come from her and Roku, because Avatar lineage = good.
And that grinds my gears so hard because then just like Ursa, that's robbing Zuko of his autonomy to make bad choices.
When Iroh tells Zuko in The Avatar and the Fire Lord that his legacy is the good and evil within him, it sucks because Zuko's legacy should solely be his own choices (I have my own issues with Zuko's view of the crown). Not the bloodline within him that he can't control. THAT'S A MAJOR POINT OF THE SHOW. People aren't born evil.
and yet Ursa is GOOD because she is Roku's GRANDDAUGHTER. That's really it. Yes, I can understand that she was raised in the moral compass left behind by him. But Ozai is only really good/charming to Ursa right up until their wedding when suddenly he's just EVIL and he's like 'you're MINE now hehehehe' like there's no in between, you just have to show Ursa in this miserable predicament which then also doesn't allow for any interesting development in our Ozai, aka previous big bad which could have been him following his father's orders to marry some woman and maybe he legitimately TRIED to make things work because NO ONE IS BORN EVIL. Ozai is such a shadow of Zuko that he would try to appease his father, and he might take this marriage on in the hopes that it would start building a bridge between them.
And we're not even getting into the fact that we don't learn that Ursa is the Avatar's granddaughter until the final season, JUST IN TIME for Zuko to learn this while he's locked in his self loathing and is utterly directionless. Again, this takes away the importance of his own choices. The boy who started the series completely devoted to returning home, willing to put himself and others through constant danger and misery just to appease his father is given a free ride card of 'oh you're actually good on the inside! Just do the good thing!'
Because he's Ursa's son, the woman who didn't want to marry Ozai because he was so so awful that his bloodline is OBVIOUSLY why Azula is the way she is (ugh).
Like this could work in more fairytale/simpler story settings but atla has gone so far out of it's way to continue to say 'no one is born evil' and 'people can change'; but when it comes down to it, they're really restricting the moral compass.
In the end, Ursa is good and suffered. Ozai is BAD because VILLAIN. (which yes he is but... ugh).
I don't know if I've made sense. I had a more cohesive idea when I wrote those tags but this is more or less my views of Comic!Ursa.
I don't hate her. But I hate that they just kind of shoved her on the misery train and kind of went 'wow that sucks right? This makes you want to see Zuko find her right?'
And then he does and all is well. Because Ursa is a GOOD WOMAN unlike that EVIL OZAI.
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gloomybirdie · 1 year
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Do you have any atla fic recs?
omg do i........anon let us go on a journey I will give you just a VARIETY of shit that I can think of or see on my list. it is a lot of zukka so I.....hope you caught on I do that here.... lol
The Art of Burning / by @hella1975
HUGE fic 369k words and counting it is my BELOVED I also hope that was obvious from my art tag, lmao. Zukos original arc is interrupted by Hakoda’s ship with its own ocs so his redemption takes a whole new path it is just an ABSOLUTE GEM of analyzing trauma and behaviors and war etc etc. I think it's really cool too that the cast is a wide range of experiences and AGE DIFFERENCES, and that affects SO MUCH and it does delve into that that I think you should read so I'm not just off here rambling lmao. Something something the innocence of being a kid and growing out of the bad things that didn't last for you and never knowing just how much everyone else kept it hidden from you and something something the tragedy of being a teenager and not knowing enough but enough to know you were wronged and the kids are leaving you to this memory when it was supposed to be shared and something something beginning your twenties and knowing it all but you are old enough to know the only thing you can do is live until you're gone and something something being well into adulthood living with war because you are war itself now and if you're it then maybe you can last long enough it will never fall on the kids shoulders, like it did to you.
Tehe ✨️ anywaaaaayys excellent fic I am giving it a terry's chocolate orange for hella to eat so I don't have to <3
Leaving it All Behind / by @ssreeder
672k words and counting and it is the most BLOODIEST, GORIEST, MOST DISTURBING FIC and it just keeps on getting worse. Sokka is captured by Zhao and meets Zuko and Others in a prison camp and it goes way off from there, this fic just shows the absolute WORST aspects of war but I am too invested even when the emotional devastation this fic does for me is a cry for help. I think what just really does it for me is even though I am literally watching and crying over my characters being stripped of their sanity is that it shows.... in VERY tiny moments lmao.... humanity. Like it's bad it's so bad, but when there is peace it is quiet and it is small, and I think that is beautiful and sad at the same time. I also have had the most absolute fun talking to reedy lol, they're a really great person and even though they're MEAN TO ME, I really enjoy when they share more abt their writing on their discord server cuz there's so much care and thinking put into it <3 it's a lot of fun even though I am...mm... not built for the stress I'm putting myself through for this fic
Excellent fic I will give it a bath and a stick <3
through the ice darkly / by chuffystilton
49k words and it is multiple parts of a non-chronological unfinished series..... but my GOD ITS SO FUCKING INTERESTING. The NWT started the war under a weird.. suspicious.. false avatar guy who is focused on experiments? taking away bending? I don't know but I reread this fic constantly because it is so much fun to me making theories because when I catch a tie it is SO GOOD and satisfying to know that I'm figuring it out. The idea was so fucking good to me I think of it constantly because yes the politics and war goals are reversed but azula and zuko are extremely close!!!!!!! and katara and sokka are not!!!!!!! Reverse au baby that's what I'm all fucking about!!!!!!! I love it and it has 100% inspired me for my own au ideas
Excellent fic I give it a hot chocolate <3
Honor and Vengance on the High Seas / by @paramouradrift
362k words and counting Zuko with his crew unintentionally becomes a pirate and I FUCKING. LOVE. THIS. FIC. Whatever attention it gets needs to be DOUBLED and then doubled again DOUBLED DOUBLED A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!! The cast is majorly made of Zuko's crew on his ship and they all have personal lives that are so much fun to me and omg the fight scenes are so badass. The buildup to them is my FAVORITE part because everyone is working together making plans etc and it's just... everything I want <3 also since zuko is gay it delves into his thoughts on that and his relationships and there's that I love too. When you get to the pirate lady... tell her I said hi 💖. Lastly the fucking.... lore in the notes? THE LORE IN THE NOTES. TOP TIER ITS SO FUCKING GOOD WE NEED TO AS A SOCIETY MAKE USE OF MORE FLOWER SLURS!!!!!!!!!! AND DOING OUR OWN SHIT AND MAKING THE ATLA WORLD SO FULL LIKE THIS!!!!!!!! Please I have not drawn for this fic YET because if I'm going to I am DOING THE ENTIRE CAST
Excellent fic I give it my soul <3
Carry On for You / by Haircresendo
A pokemon au that I would give anything for I love it so much. This author does a FUCK TON more that I love but this au specifically focuses so much on zuko and his journey w his pokemon and he's raised by piandao!!!! So much is going on with it and Sokka is a moron, but a beloved moron.
Excellent fic I give this it my best strawberries which are crunchy and sour <3
All's Fair / by @lovelyelbowleech
372k words and counting and it is zuko and sokka being captured by zhao, they're tortured on a boat and I get absolutely giddy and head over heels whenever it updates <3 THE OCS OMG???? THE OCS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEYRE SO FULL OF LIFE I would do anything for them and there's one in particular I'd love to draw, but I'm practicing older muscled characters atm to give him full justice. This fic also makes disgusting people truly vile monsters, because yknow since it's their pov there is nothing wrong to it in their eyes, it's all casual, and that is disgusting and mortifying but FUCKING REAL!!!! ITS SO REAL!!!! This fic feels so real with the way politics and war are discussed and played and omg the teenagers!!!! This is my favorite way the teens have been written, because they DONT have all the answers to how to comfort eachother. They don't understand their feelings, they sure as hell don't understand themselves, and when it delves deeper into the harder discussions being talked about it does it incredibly in character for them I love it. Zuko is so fucking insane and chaotic in the best possible way
Excellent fic I give it warm rice and chopsticks <3
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watched the first episode of the live action atla adaptation and took notes:
-what is this opening. who are these people. am i expected to care about this random earth kingdom man because i really don’t
-opening fight is kinda meh :/
-sozin looks weirdly… nice? like he has “harmless old man” vibes. i don’t actually dislike this casting choice i think there’s a lot of potential to having him look friendly and approachable even as he does war crimes
-seriously did someone in the writer’s room watch rogue one before coming in and then go like “HEY I KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD ADD” WHAT is this plot doing here
-where is katara’s opening narration. like i get they aren’t adapting one to one but that’s such a loss. the opening cutscene from the original series was so good
-WHERE THE FUCK IS THE GAANG SERIOUSLY. WHY ARE WE STARTING WITH RANDOM EARTH KINGDOM MAN AND SOZIN
-all of these people are so fucking sweaty what is this
-sozin’s outfit is appropriately fuckable
-“my sights… are set… higher… because… it is… our time…” “[screaming]” wow very emo
-KATARA IS HERE!! MY BEST GIRL
-why did they change the narration. this is objectively worse.
-oh no this isn’t katara is it… dang :(
-air temple looking neat. why are we here tho. where are katara and sokka
-why is everyone watching aang jumping around like he’s a fucking celebrity. have they never seen an airbender before in the fucking air temple
-at least they say aang’s name right. step up from shamalalalam or whatever his name is. of course that bar is so low the devil declared it a tripping hazard, so
-these people do NOT talk like actual humans. have these writers never had to write natural exposition before
-genuinely what was the point of that first scene. WHAT does it add
-“when yangchen died the next avatar was born into the water tribe” what, does aang not know this. my fucking god this exposition is shit
-aang didn’t know he was the avatar?? and then didn’t immediately get an ego about it when gyatso told him??? who is this and what did you do with my BOY
-the acting isn’t bad but the lines are so shit it’s hard to tell
-aang is NOT sufficiently goofy
-appa’s kind of ugly :(
-TEAM ROCKET’S BLASTING OFF AGAIN (<— my unfiltered reaction to sozin going jetpack mode)
-unnecessary airbender fight scene. i think this is literally just here to look cool and honestly? 6/10
-aang just fuckin… wandered off? instead of willfully running away? bro you can’t take my boy’s agency like this
-i want a video of appa’s va making those noises into the mic. come on netflix do it it’ll be funny
-WHY is everything so WET all the time
-20 minutes in and i have yet to see the south pole. literally none of this is necessary to the story. you could cut all of it and nothing would change
-HERE SHE IS. FINALLY. IT’S HER
-no funny boat scene with sokka? insert no bitches megamind here
-oh they still have a boat scene. unfortunately it sucks ass
-WHERE IS PISSED OFF KATARA DECIMATING AN ICEBERG BY ACCIDENT
-seriously. they’re removing all the good scenes to fit more unnecessary action and/or melodrama filler in
-shitty zuko cameo
-WHAT is that scar. why is it so small. did he fall and get a scrape on his face? looks more like a scab than anything. 2/10
-baffling why the iceberg even reacted to katara when she’s apparently so fucking incapable she can’t even lift a water orb. they’re massacring my girl
-why does sokka want to leave this random child to die
-kanna!
-“it can’t be… this… is an airbender…..” i am rolling my fucking eyes
-iffy on this iroh so far but i’ll reserve judgement
-tumblr was right. zuko’s actor is absolutely putting his whole pussy into this. he can have rights
-how are NONE of these jokes landing. even the ones they directly crib from the original just… lose all impact
-why is kanna saying the intro dialogue randomly with no prompting. seriously these writers are SO. FUCKING. SHIT
-every emotional beat in this comes off more wooden than a fucking tree
-seriously. everything i could say about this just boils down to the wooden writing, unnecessary and poorly executed exposition, the action scenes shoehorned in for no discernible reason, inability to create any impact from anything ever, and the removal of all the good scenes from the original in favor of more unnecessary poorly written TRASH
-oh one more thing actually
-AANG TEACHES KATARA TO WATERBEND. GET OUT??
-basically
-they took all the good stuff out to fit in more melodrama and action, but their writing (and directing. and acting) is too shitty to actually sell said drama and their fight scenes are mid at best
-3/10
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heinzpilsner · 2 months
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Some more (supposedly unpopular) thoughts on Zuko's image in atla
'cause apparently that's what I think about these days, geez
Okay, so, I'm not a great expert in style or character design or anything obviously, but I have some general theoretical ideas about it.
Here they are, basically:
1) In practice, attempts to "soften severe features" with, well, soft decorations more often than not make potentially attractive people to look just meh;
2) When you can't hide some feature, it makes more sense to incorporate it as an organic part of your overall image (yes, Zuko's scar, I'm talking about you);
3) Good man doesn't necessary have to look all soft and fluffy to remain a good man. If softness of decoration collides with character's constitution, it makes the audience more emotionally confused than anything, even if just subconsciously (e.g., thoughts like "So, he's a good guy now, but I am less attracted to him than before. Does it mean that I find good guys less hot in general?". ... Yes, it was surprisingly specific. And no, I'm not gonna elaborate.)
If we go all back to beginning though, originally, 13-year-old Zuko's elegant facial features allowed him to go in many different directions with his style.
... That's until Ozai made this choice for him permanently, oh dear that's the one way to put it.
Actually, Zuko was kinda lucky with his scar's shape (considering all the possible alternatives): it ended up looking more like a warpaint or a Bowie-like face decoration than a disfigurement it is wow, almost as if it was specifically designed by professionals with this exact tought in mind lol. And while I totally understand the human in-character desire to hide it behind hair, from the stylistic point of view, that's exactly what Zuko shouldn't do. With such a face, all attempts to avoid people's attention will only lead to the opposite effect.
Also, to hide the scar behind some fringes means to hide Zuko's overall striking features as well, which is a freaking crime against aestetics, if you ask me. His face bears so much more potential than that.
So, what I'm trying to say is this: paradoxically, Zuko manages to look good (yes, good) with supposedly "awful" season 1 haircut, and just meh with supposedly "sexy" season 3 haircut. Because "awful" haircut, while pretty eccentric, opens his features, turns the scar from a weakness into a strengh, and hence translates more character in a harmonic way, apparently.
While later-season-3 Zuko doesn't exactly look bad either (which is especially true when animators make a deliberate effort to depict him extra pretty for dramatic scenes lol I'm not blind guys), he mostly looks... unimpressive? Actually, more often than not he reminds me of a shaggy puppy that just made a puddle nearby, lol. Alternatively, he looks like some simple guy next door - kinda cute then a light hits right, but nothing special. And although I can understand the general thought behind this choice (symbolic humbling as well as he-needs-his-hair-to-wear-the-crown-in-universe-logical), "cute simple guy" is exactly what Zuko isn't. And no, bryke, he's not an emo boy either. He can be awkward turtleduck sometimes, yes, but never someone ordinary. His whole appearance was initially created with this idea in mind.
So, "Bad prince with awful haircut" vs "Good prince with sexy haircut" lens helps to keep things in simple boxes, of course, but there's so much more nuance to Zuko's appearance than that, for better or for worse.
So... ponytail rights again, yay! Gods, I need more season 1 au zutara
(Btw... Am I the only person who remembers what Katara canonically kinda defended Zuko's ponytail to Sokka? And they were enemies back then! I mean, you may think she has a bad taste if you like, but the fact remains).
... Lee-the-refugee-before-the-Jasmine-Dragon haircut is my fav though. But just like all the good things in Zuko's life, it couldn't last long, could it? (Ouch, negligent shagginess looks nice on Jet, but it doesn't do many favors for Zuko's high-contrast aristocratic beauty. I kinda hated it, honestly.)
/typing all this on my phone from memory also without trusty google translator, so yep, no pictures. just my blunt words in poor english with no evidence for you to call me on my bullshit lol.
Also, I have no idea how people react to my posts, or whether they react at all. Ignoring tumblr notifications kinda helps me to keep my sanity intact, lol. But if you found this amateur-and-totally-subjective analysis of mine interesting for some reason... Thanks for your attention, I guess?
... But why I have this sinking feeling what I potentially managed to offend 2/3 of the fandom for completely different reasons without even trying? Lol, whatever./
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shadyruinskryptonite · 4 months
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Titan Bending Chapter 5
Warning: Violence consistent with cannon, NSFW so MDNI, language, major character death (both consistent with canon of both AOT and ATLA as well as diverging from canon), so much trauma literally everyone is so traumatized, very much slow burn, a little enemies to lovers, SO MUCH ANGST, hurt/comfort, hurt and delayed comfort, AFAB reader
Chapter Warnings: punching, anger, talks of childhood fighting
A/N: Switching my post days to Fridays instead of Mondays, I think I'll like this better and hopefully more people will be able to see it this way
WC: 2100
Previous Chapter, Next Chapter
Masterlist
Tags: @mochminnie
Levi shifts a little and I can tell he’s glancing over his shoulder to see who might be bothering him. I’m not sure if he didn’t really realize it was me or if he didn’t care, but he just returned to his original position without acknowledging me. I roll my eyes and turn to go back inside, when my own thoughts stop me.
Ya know what? I’ll be damned if this little shit is going to ruin my night. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.
Turning back, I wordlessly take a seat next to him. I can see from my peripheral vision that he glares at me, but stays silent himself. We sit there for a prolonged period of time, lost in our own thoughts. After a while, I successfully forget he’s next to me and my mind drifts as I stare at the moon and stars. The sight of a familiar constellation brings a smile to my face and reminds me of pointing out constellations with Zuko and Iroh.
I hope the Gaang is okay. At least, even if I never get to see them again, I know that we sleep under the same sky full of stars.
I sigh and pull my knees to my chest, closing my eyes.
“Are you cold?” Levi’s voice cuts through the silence and makes me jump.
I turn to look at him and see that he’s already staring at me. Caught off guard by what seems like genuine worry for my condition, I stutter out “Oh, uh, no. No, I’m alright. Just…just thinking.” I trail off and return my eyes to the sky. Now aware that he’s next to me, I can feel Levi still looking at me.
“About?” he asks curtly.
I turn back to him with furrowed eyebrows. “Huh?” I utter.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks again, just as short as before.
I snort at his audacity. “You know, if you don’t want to talk to me you don’t have to. YOU are the one that started speaking to ME just now,” I say before pausing and quietly adding “if you must know though, I’m just thinking about my friends back home.” I glance off again, opting to remain vague.
He doesn’t need to know more than that. He’s lucky I’ve even told him this much.
Silence falls over us again, but this time it’s me that breaks it. “What about you? You’ve been sitting here quietly longer than I have, what is it that you’re thinking about?” I ask.
He sizes me up before giving me an equally vague answer, “I come up here so I can get away from thinking for awhile.”
I nod in understanding. After a moment, I speak both in response to Levi and to no one in particular, “stargazing is really calming. I do it any time I need to clear my mind, too.” 
The quiet settles back in, and after what feels like a lifetime, I can see the tiniest sliver of light over the horizon. My eyes start to get heavy and a yawn escapes. Stretching, I stand up and go to leave, but not before turning to Levi one last time and quickly and quietly bidding him a goodnight. Before he has a chance to respond, I go back inside and wander back to my room.
Stripping out of my outside clothes, I put on the only t-shirt and shorts that I own outside of my daily outfit. I collapse back in bed, grateful that I don’t have windows to allow any light in. I drift to sleep almost immediately.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
The sound of two quick pounds on my door startles me. Without bothering to get out of bed, I roll over and groan, “who is it and what the hell do you want?”
A voice I don’t recognize responds, “Uh, it’s- it’s Jean. Captain Levi sent me to come get you for training.”
I groan again. I feel my eyes closing against my will, and I scratch out, “Well, you can tell Levi that he can shove it.”
There’s a pause.
“Um, I uh, I don’t uh, that-”
Aggravated, I throw off the blanket and stomp to the door, throwing it open. I have to shade my eyes against the onslaught of light. Once my eyes adjust I can see that this is one of the kids that was sitting with us yesterday. “What seems to be the problem, Jean? And good god, what time is it?”
“It’s uh, 8AM. And it’s, it’s just that, if I go back without you, I’ll get in trouble with the captain,” he rambles on. 
I rub my face again and question further, “you really are telling me that YOU will get yelled at because of MY response?” He vigorously nods. I sigh and throw on my shoes without bothering to put on socks or tie them. 
Marching towards the training field, it looks like I’m the one leading this poor child around. The closer we get, the angrier I become. Walking onto the field, Jean goes and joins his friends and I see that Eren, Armin, and the black haired girl are among them. But I don’t stop. I am practically stomping my way over to Levi and it’s not until I’m almost on top of him that he even bothers to glance at me. Big mistake.
He hasn’t even turned to look at me entirely when my fist connects with his face. Hard. I practically spin him and I can tell he’s genuinely surprised. I don’t register the silence that’s fallen across the field.
“Listen here you little shit! You seem to be the only person that doesn’t comprehend that I’m not a soldier. I trained last night. Alone. And probably harder than any training you are having these children do. And, speaking of children, how DARE you scare that poor boy so badly over being a fucking messenger! Your subordinates don’t respect you, they fear you and that makes you a piss poor leader. But I’ll tell you this now, I’m not afraid of you like everyone else around here seems to be. So if you have a problem with me, you come and deal with it like a real fucking man, don’t send one of them that’s petrified to tell you something you don’t want to hear.”
I don’t allow him a chance to respond before I turn on my heel and storm off of the field. It’s only as I’m walking away that I see the pure shock on everyone’s faces.
Why the hell is everyone here so concerned about this man? Just because he’s an asshole doesn’t mean jack shit!
When I get back to my room, I finally allow myself to shake out my hand. I quickly heal my aching knuckles and have the fleeting thought that I definitely punched him harder than I intended. I realize I cannot be bothered with this thought and flop back into bed, falling asleep again in no time at all.
By the time I wake back up, it’s most of the way through the afternoon. I throw on my clothes and walk next door to Hange’s lab where I find her toiling away at god knows what. When she sees me, she screeches and claps her hands.
“Levi might hate you but, god, I absolutely just LOVE you! That was legendary! No one stands  up to him, but that’s because we’re all just used to him. But you! You are really shaking things up around here.”
She speaks so quickly that it takes me a moment to process everything she’s saying, but when I do I smile and say “he’s just been nothing but rude to me from minute one and I’m tired of it. I guess the line for me is that I don’t like how he was treating those kids. Why is everyone so intimidated by him anyway?”
“Oh, he’s intimidating alright. He has the highest kill count of any of the Scouts. He’s widely known as Humanity’s Strongest Soldier and is insanely talented with the ODM gear and just in any kind of battle situation. He has the record for the fastest time on our training course. Well, he did until yesterday that is.”
All I can muster is a distant “huh,” although I don’t think Hange even heard it as she continued talking.
“He’s not all that bad though. He honestly really cares but he’d never say that. Everyone does really look up to him and respect him, despite how it might seem, because at the end of the day he’s earned it.”
I mull over Hange’s words, suddenly feeling a bit guilty about calling him out in front of everyone. She must have noticed and quickly tries to reassure me by saying, “don’t worry though Y/N, if anyone can take a punch and some criticism, it’s Levi. Come on, it’s got to be about time for dinner.” I smile at her as we head to the dining hall. 
Dinner was normal, save for the kids really seeming amazed at what I did and said to Levi. This only makes me worry more about my earlier actions. After finishing up, I head to Levi’s quarters instead of my own. I hesitate but ultimately knock quickly.
“Name and business,” he calls from the other side of the door.
“It’s, uh, it’s Y/N.” I rub my neck as I wait for his response. There’s a long pause before he finally invites me in with clear hesitation in his voice.
I enter slowly and see that his office and bedroom space is immaculate. I try not to pry by looking around and instead glance at him.
Damn, if looks could kill. 
“What do you want?” Levi asks when I don’t say anything for a moment.
“I, uh,” I take a deep breath to steady myself and meet glare with a soft gaze. “I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I was frustrated that my terms for working with the scouts weren’t being respected. Additionally, these kids are all about the same age as my friends back home, so I think I took Jean’s concern about potential consequences personally. Even so, it wasn’t right for me to do and say that in front of your entire squad. No matter what my opinions are, I shouldn’t have aired that out publicly and undermined your authority. All of this is to say: I’m sorry, and I can assure you that it won’t happen again.”
I pause awkwardly for a minute as he blinks at me. The anger seems to have left his eyes but I can’t place the emotion that replaced it. As I’m trying to decode his expression, it dawns on me that there’s a pretty nasty bruise on his face from where I hit him. I grimace at it and quickly add, “shit, I’m also sorry that I punched you a lot harder than I actually intended to. Here,” I approach to get a better look at it and he backs away.
“The least I can do is heal it up so you don’t have this nasty bruise,” I lean forward as I inspect the bruise and this time he lets me. I collect a bit of water before asking, “may I?”
He simply nods in response. I bring my hand up to his face and he closes his eyes. My water begins to glow and I can tell for a split second it hurts before the pain begins to dissipate. As I continue healing him, he surprises me by beginning to speak.
“I’ve been hit more than my fair share, but never quite that hard. Where’d you learn to punch like that?”
I chuckle as I finish healing him. When I’m done, I lean back and smile before I shrug and say, “I used to fight for money. As a 12 year old girl, you’ve gotta be able to hit pretty hard if you wanna stand a chance against grown men.”
He continues to stare at me as I walk away. With my hand on the door, I turn back to him and say, “I’m still going to train on my own, but I’ll try to be more of a team player. I’ll help the team clean each day from here on out, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of Hange’s experiments. Have a good evening Levi.”
I step out of his quarters, leaving him seemingly shaken by something I said or did. I chuckle to myself and get ready to train for the night.
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canmom · 9 months
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Animation Night 162: Nimona
I'm back~
Hey everyone. Last week Animation Night had its second week off in just over three years. A shameful lapse; the perpetrators have been... dealt with, and you can trust it won't happen again.
So tonight! I figured we'd watch Nimona, since it just came out and all. This is actually sorta related to Annecy ('Annecy related stuff' will be a theme for a good few weeks), insofar as it premiered there. But I didn't see that premiere, so instead I gotta talk about some other stuff...
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(please forgive the big ugly stickers, this is the only high-res version of the cover I could find)
So. We're in the era where the people who were big in webcomics back in the 2010s are now making animated films. A few months ago we talked Lackadaisy; now it's Nimona's turn.
If you're old by Tumblr standards, you might well remember that time ten years ago when Nate Stevenson was one of us poor sods drawing pictures on Tumblr as gingerhaze (he just came back in fact!), and Nimona was a popular webcomic. But not one you can find online anymore; Nimona came out on paper, and this in turn launched Stevenson's gradual rise through comics and into animation. Perhaps you are more likely to know of his work from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. More on that shortly...
Nimona follows a shapeshifting girl in a fantasy world and her friendship with one Ballister Blackheart, a 'villain' in the roles of this setting but very much one with a heart of gold, at odds with the 'Institute' and his counterpart/rival/secret boyfriend Ambrosious Goldenloin. In contrast with the uptight Blackheart, Nimona is a kind of prickly traumagirl chaos agent, an archetype that we would meet again in She-Ra's Catra; the story involves many sciencefictional turns but her tumultous relationship with Blackheart is at its heart - along with the question of what sort of person Nimona is when you get down to it, which even she struggles to decide...
It's tricky to know how to characterise Nimona, 10 years on. At the time I was certainly into it; looking back I feel like it's definitely a first longform work sort of thing, where sometimes the plotting feels a bit haphazard - but regardless, it's absolutely a solid read. And for a Tumblr craving that #representation it was exactly what the doctor ordered. The great success of this comic led to more comics, primarily the Lumberjanes series about a group of girl scouts having various wacky supernatural escapades; all this comic work in turn got Stevenson an in at Disney, working on Craig McCracken's series Wander over Yonder as a writer, before finally getting a chance to run his own show...
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That show was the 2018 Netflix reboot of the 80s cartoon She-Ra: Princess of Power, animated at Dreamworks. (At about the same time, Stevenson married Molly Ostertag, author of Strong Female Protagonist and writer for The Owl House). This one was very popular with the lesbians on here, odds are pretty good that you've seen it, I actually ended up watching it as it came out with housemates... but let's talk a little about it, why not.
So. Princesses is the original She-Ra by way of Avatar: The Last Airbender, taking a lot of AtlA's general approach to pacing, humour and drama alike - the first season finds it hard to step out of Avatar's shadow, but gradually it figured out a bit more of its own identity.
She-Ra is ostensibly the story of Adora, who has defected from the evil empire and gained the power to transform into magical girl supersoldier 'She-Ra', along with her two friends Glimmer and Bo from the good two shoes kingdom. These protagonists have their conflicts - Adora trying to fill the big shoes of She-Ra, Glimmer's tense relationship with her royal mother - but it is absolutely far more interested in antagonist Catra, who is the Nimona/Zuko figure of this story, as well as Adora's long-term will they or won't they love interest. Catra consistently steals the show, and most of its big drama comes from the question of whether Catra will follow Adora in defecting from the 'Horde' - or rather, why she does not, and continues to make all the worst choices possible. The intermediate season finales with their time travel and fantasy worlds are honestly pretty solid sci-fi melodrama - the final season, which really rushes to tie everything up neatly, sadly drops that ball.
Besides AtlA, it's a show that will wear its anime influences on its sleeve (with some really overt Utena nods). The animation is in an odd place where it is clearly leaning on anime drawing styles but with an American Toonboom-era inflection, where everything is pushed into simple shapes just a little too much; it has its moments (the 'Fright Zone' backgrounds are rather good, and there are some charming moments of character interaction) but struggles with space and perspective in a way that's not great for an action-driven show.
But whatever I might have to say about its flaws, She-Ra was a hit, successful enough for Netflix to fund it for four seasons - making a much larger splash than Powerhouse's concurrent He-Man series which took a much more traditional approach. And I suppose that led them to look at what other ND Stevenson related properties they might be able to sell...
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As all this was happening, the Nimona film was brewing. It had a rather troubled production; in 2015 Fox bought the rights, planning to make it at Blue Sky (best known for Ice Age). The project got cancelled when Disney digested Fox, with Disney feeling a little nervy about all the gay/trans shit in this movie. (Not that that stopped them having a float at London Pride yesterday lmao. Cunts.)
But that wasn't the end of the story, and Netflix and Annapurna swooped in, pulling in directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane who had been at Blue Sky before its demise and worked on the previous version of the film. The animation ended up being finished at the visual effects company DNEG and premiered at Annecy a couple of weeks ago - I could have met Stevenson and got a signed copy of the comic lol. Now at last it's here for streaming.
So after that messy story what sort of film is it? The story takes a similar premise to the comic, and keeps the core character relationships pretty much as they were: Blackheart is a good man unjustly framed as a villain, Nimona is a shapeshifter who pushes him to escalate, Goldenloin as the official pursuing Blackheart, and his boyfriend before the shit went down. But the plot looks like it will end up diverging quite a bit. Visually, it's CG with a 2D celshading inflection - most likely unrelated to Spiderverse given the timeline, but it's definitely belonging within that new flavour of CG film. It's a style that really pushes and exaggerates the expressions, and I can't really say how well it will work - but let's find out! The critics seem pretty excited.
I think I said that Animation Night would start at a reasonable time today. Well, my best laid plans ganged aglee, but there is time I think to check out Nimona - so if you'd like to join me, I'll be live shortly at twitch.tv/canmom and I hope to see you there ^^
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Avatar and the Unwillingness to Grow Up
First and foremost, Avatar the Last Airbender is a show that is geared towards children.
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Yes, I know that is a staggering reality check amidst all the talk of genocide, warfare, abuse, heavy topics, and whatnot. But it was ultimately written and directed to appeal to kids and teens. It features kid heroes having adventures to stop the bad guy and save the world. That's practically a mark of the genre.
And the term "kids' show" is usually used to deflect criticism because of it and the follow-ups (the comics and Legend of Korra).
Here's the thing though: Avatar the Last Airbender appealed to a larger audience because it was still good despite being meant for children. The characters were well written. The action was well executed. And the plot, despite its shortcomings, was still ahead of their time.
It wasn't that ATLA is a kids' show that is causing problems for the franchise as a whole moving forward.
More it's the fact that the franchise seems unwilling to grow up and mature.
Let me try to explain: ATLA's audience aren't kids anymore. They are adults who grew up, graduated, got jobs, and so on. And they're not gonna be younger any time soon. That doesn't mean they still can't enjoy the original series, but subsequent installments need to reflect this. Otherwise, they're gonna be left in the dust. This is something all children's media faces: either they focus on the target demographic or they branch out and touch more "mature" topics.
Either one is fine, but when a series focuses on pretty heavy topics like Avatar, you do need to step up your game if you want to stay relevant. That's what they attempted to do with the comics and LOK.
They didn't do them well.
This had its roots back in the original series with the demonizing and whitewashing of various characters (like Iroh and Azula for example). Again, this was fine since the main heroes were kids so their view of the world is gonna be immature, and the Fire Nation (despite being humanized) were ultimately the bad guys that needed to be stopped. Even Zuko's ascension to the throne, while it wouldn't automatically solve everything like the narrative insists it would, isn't as bad since they left a lot of wiggle room with how his reign may go. So the effect wasn't as bad.
It's just without a clear bad guy anymore, without some monster that needs to be slain...we start to have problems. Now suddenly the Gaang are thrust into trying to mediate world peace, but they fail to do so. Badly. They view people as being either good or evil, no in-between, even when the situation and circumstance says otherwise. The Fire Nation is good now, everyone who says otherwise is evil. Zuko is in charge, so screw everyone who has a problem with his rule (even though the reign we see is pretty disastrous). For said arbitrators of peace, they don't do a whole lot of compromise and seem to carry on with exactly what they were doing during the War. Even when the situation is delicate and requires a bit more tact without throwing elements at bad guys.
Same thing with Legend of Korra. Despite being about heavy topics on paper with no clear good or bad guys, the narrative always takes one side, demonizes the other, and never goes into detail about how the situation is to be resolved aside from "bad guys defeated". Which, again, is a pretty childish way of looking at the world.
It's this unwillingness to mature, this belief that they still need to adhere to the same tools they used in ATLA is what is causing problems for the franchise as a whole. This is frustrating since they have the characters and themes in place already which could propel the franchise to new heights and sophisticated storytelling. And the characters suffer for it. The unwillingness to change their child-like view of the world despite supposedly knowing better makes it seem like the writers are coddling them and appealing to nostalgia instead of developing them and making them stronger.
And the more stories they tell with this mindset is gonna get worse over time stuff until we get stuff like-
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...yeah. I went there. The authors' unwillingness for Peter Parker to change and actually learn about taking responsibility and making hard choices is what led to awful storylines like this.
And I'm afraid that if Bryke wants ATLA to go mainstream, yet still insists on having a childish narrative that is neither appropriate or respectful of the characters they seem intent on coddling, then we're gonna get crap like this if we haven't already.
I'm not against having a good guy vs bad guy narrative. What I am against is stories, themes, and characters getting dumbed down to fit that mold. If characters like Azula keep getting shoved into the role of bad guy even if it's not appropriate, and the heroes continue to insist that everyone who is against them are irredeemably evil, then the series isn't going to change.
And with the audience getting older yet the heroes never growing up, who's gonna bother with the further adventures of the Gaang since they can't relate to them anymore?
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MY ATLA LIVE ACTION S1E3 THOUGHTS
EP2 - EP4
This episode might simultaneously be the most and least conflicting to me. I largely enjoyed watching it, and a lot of my complaints are very nitpicky. That being said, if they move too many plot points around to write things out, they run the risk of the adaptation turning into something else entirely. 
If I, as a fan of the original, am able to understand why things are being changed, and where they’re going with those changes, then it is ultimately fine. So far I’m mostly able to understand the changes and where they might lead. This episode gets a little bit interesting in that aspect for me personally. (And it’s fine if people disagree!!)
The way they condensed the plot in episode two made sense, but I think this episode they were trying to weave a lot together, and I guess I can’t say yet if it worked out or not. To keep this section spoiler free, I won’t go into it, but I’ll def talk about this again once I’ve seen the whole show. 
Meanwhile, I’m still utterly perplexed by Zuko’s character. Like. He’s fine I guess. But they’re doing a few things with him here and there that I personally wouldn’t. I’ll reserve judgment until the end, I hope they can ultimately pull it together. 
In other news, as most of us know, because of her having been announced as being cast before the show was out, Azula is in this season. Her introduction and her involvement in book one is all original to this series, and so far I can’t find any fault with it. This actress is super believable as Azula, and because I’m enjoying her portrayal so much I just have to continue to hope that her insertion into book one’s events won’t interfere with the adaptation’s believability as Avatar the Last Airbender overall.
Spoilers and live reactions under the cut
resistance group in the fire nation? this is a new addition! interesting
“my mother and my brother” i wonder.
i definitely am not unhappy about the introduction of the idea that not all fire nation citizens are complicit in this war. it adds that extra bit of nuance early, so that’s pretty nice.
YOOOO AZULA
wait is that kevin tran supernatural? osric chau?? (not me exposing myself)
oh this azula actress is GOOD
it’ll be interesting to see how they handle integrating azula into season one
i am still liking the deeper connection with sokka and suki. he’s clearly still pining after her, even after leaving
another airbender?? unless they’re gonna pull something weird, that’s gotta be teo and the mechanist, right? weird to do that in omashu, but that would get rid of the northern air temple episode. let’s see how this plays out
okay, this thing about zuko being like “we are fire nation. even out here. especially out here”. that’s Good. i can get behind that.
his cabbages??? what about his cabbages???
who is this random cart guy? banking on haru, jet, or original character for the show.
CABBAGE MAN
IT’S TEO!!!! and the mechanic!! so we’re gonna see the hot air balloons early, and likely not see the northern air temple at all??
this guy looks exactly like how i would imagine the mechanist
will this even out to an early attack on omashu? is the mechanist still working for the fire nation even though he’s conceivably in a safer place??
sorry azula is Perfect
is she practicing with the yuyan archers? could be cool to give her some sort of weapon, if not out of character considering how much conventional weaponry is considered beneath firebenders in the modern fire nations
yayyy machine nerd sokka
okay now THIS is jet. which means that the mechanist could conceivably be innocent of conspiracy with the fire nation
thank god aang is using the glider. looks way too funky without the glider.
okay so jet was right. these are definitely firebenders. 
the freedom fighters!!!! pipsqueak!! smellerbee!!! longshot!!! THE DUKE!!!! 
absolutely wild that we’re doing azula’s introduction, bumi/omashu, the mechanist, and jet at the same time. like these plotlines are going to run into each other in some kinda way, like. far be it from me to say they can’t condense the arcs like this, but it is an odd choice.
so the theme of this episode is “if not us then who”
wait blasting jelly. is JET the one bombing omashu? that. would check out actually
“omashu, the best the earth kingdom has to offer”, no, in universe that would technically be ba sing se. what are you talking about zuko?
okay, jet’s causing the contention in the group that he needed to. that played out fairly well, actually. sokka vs. katara, aang seems somewhat impartial right now. serving the right purpose
oh the duke :( 
that was a quick turnaround. the blowup and reconciliation was a bit too close together i think
“i don’t need fire to defeat this boy”. i believe you zuko, but where are your dao? where are your swords zuko?
NOT THE LADY GOING “how dare you hit that child” AND SMACKING ZUKO ON THE HEAD!!! help me that’s so good!!! def the kind of thing that would happen to zuko. (zuko is very much also a child though, so check yourself lady lmao)
this is an appropriate amount of screentime for cabbage man
zuko and iroh are getting separated?? i feel like this isn’t going to end well for zuko’s character. though maybe because of the white lotus, bumi will let him leave.
oh that’s the end okay
liking: Sets, Azula, Ty Lee, the mechanist's character design
worried about: how they're ultimately gonna get across all the themes of all these different episodes
disliking: how short the jet conflict was between katara and sokka (let them stew on it a little!!)
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nono-bunny · 27 days
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Thoghts from watching the ATLA live action!
Episode 4:
Holy shit Iroh and Aang are cellmates this is such a fun scenario!! Gives some strong Crossroads of Destiny vibes, ngl. Also, the crytals look cool!!!
Oh I'm genuinely so glad they didn't just... Move on from Sai working for the Fire Nation, I was genuinely doubtful they were gonna adress it tbh! Now I just need a Sokka and Jet confrontation and I'll be happy, though, that isn't likely to happen unfortunately.
I really do like what they did with Sai and Sokka though- this kinda feels like him starting a pattern of trying to look for replacement father figures tbh, which really fits with how much more visibly he's fixated on being like Hakoda here. It's sad and sweet at the same time, and I'm really interested to see how they'll write Hakoda!
Fuck yes, spy Zuko!!!
Smh kid Bumi isn't crazy enough, is it really THAT hard to find just. A completely unhinged looking kid?? Nah obviously I'm joking, he's cute haha it obviously wouldn't have been possible to have the visual similarities we see in the og so just having his unique laugh to identify him by works!
Idk what was up with Iroh's writing in the first episodes, he felt really foreign to me but over time he genuinely finally starts feeling like Iroh so I'm glad they got into the groove with his writing! He's still a bit too open which feels weird, but he uses more veiled language now while doing it so it works better. Also? I heard they used Leaves From The Vine, but damn it still got me!!
Haha YES, this was genuinely a change I always wanted: Sokka and Katara in the tunnels instead of Aang and Katara!! Not for shipping reasons, because that's gross, but because I always felt it would've been real funny haha
Wait are they fr sending Iroh to face punishment? I was sure he was next to Aang as part of a White Lotus thing or just until Bumi heard he was there!! I'm guessing he... Still doesn't know? I'm guessing this whole thing is a spin on when Iroh gets taken from the hot springs, but Bumi being directly in charge only works if it's all a ploy or if he hasn't been informed that they have the Dragon of the West in captivity- which would be wild!! Unless he's busy constructing puzzles for Aang lmao idk
So like. Given that the siblings are going to the tunnels, Aang is meeting Bumi, and Zuko is rescuing Iroh... I guess we just drop the Jet plot until next season??? Man, what a bummer. That was too short and didn't even hit all the high point of meeting him in the original. Like, they honestly could've had him try to appear and try to atone by trying to help and getting rejected and yelled at, but instead he just confirms his evil plans and is never seen again? Like, literally, what did he even do here? Despite being on screen for longer, his betrayal somehow doesn't seem as impactful because there's no time for Katara to process it last episode, like. Again, I hope to god this is a thing she has to kinda wrestle with a lot next season- I also kinda hope Sokka somehow independently meets him with Aang again and doesn't realize that the guy from the cart is the same guy Katara talked about, and that these two get to have their own Jet disappointment because again!! So far taking Sokka out of the Jet plot is genuinely the biggest issue I have with this show. Katara's arc seems to be headed to the same place albeit in a very different pace, but this is something that would be INCREDIBLY hard to fix. Like? I get it, I understand that what Sokka learns in that episode doesn't have to happen there, but. It's genuinely one of my favorite episodes because of how both of the water tribe siblings get to learn something from interacting with this charming duplicitous guy, and taking out Sokka's growth kinda just? Leaves us with Katara getting betrayed while bottling it up (likely until either they meet again or until Zuko's actions remind her of it- it'll probably also be important with Hama), it kinda just becomes "Katara gets a crush on a bad boy and gets hurt" which? Idk it feels weird, it was presented differently here and she feels much less silly and willfully blind because for the longest time no one tells her to be wary of Jet but. I still don't like how ultimately Jet was just there to disappoint Katara and interact with literally no one else. I mean!! I love Jet, of course I too had a crush on him, he's iconic and important and of course he had to be a part of this, but. Truly, they minimized the hurt he causes so much that I just kinda feel like he might as well not have appeared with how little he ultimately impacted things, at least for right now. I'm really hoping he gets an expanded role next season that helps to make up for how much his appearance was minimized, or that we see this have a tangible impact on Katara, because as it stands... It was just kind of a disappointing cameo appearance rather than something that felt like it needed to be there. Anyway this is all more about last episode but I still held out a bit of hope for it to be resolved better so. To see that Sai and Teo get to face a bit of emotional fallout set up last episode because they get to further the plot, while Jet just vanishes... It sucks, and it hurts, and I hate it. Anyway, onwards, I guess!
Teo has genuinely been changed so much he straight up isn't the same character anymore, and it's... Strange. I don't really like it too much, tbh. He's like, EXTREMELY cynical and eager to fight, and it's such a strange change from a character whose entire purpose originally was to kind of mirror Aang and help nudge him along on his journey. I genuinely can't tell if they just thought that living in a city under constant threat rather than literally amongst the clouds would mean he would kind of have to be different, or if it was an attempt to make him cooler or whatever. Regardless, I don't like it, tbh he kinda pisses me off a bit? He's SO serious and angry all the time and it just. Feels weird when he only resembles his original counterpart through his name and use of a wheelchair. Everything else about him is nowhere to be seen! If you compare his situation to Katara, it might seem similar on the surface- except, Katara is a main character who clearly still has a character arc ahead of her (and also all of her defining traits are still there), while Teo shows up like twice. It's kinda vital that he isn't too complex and keeps his original personality because he doesn't have the same leeway to grow that a main character does, otherwise he risks just becoming someone else entirely... And that's what happened. The thoughtful and cheerful boy with an interest in Air Nomad culture is all but gone, replaced with yet another angry warrior, and? While I get how it's probably more likely for him to become the latter, I also very much miss and lament the loss of the former. Sai is very much the stronger adaptational character of the two, and he's the only one of the two to get to have a real impact on one of the Gaang. It... Sucks.
Lmao Flopsy my beloved what have they done to you?? Guess they ran out of CG budget haha
Oh, this Bumi has a very strange and uncomfortable vibe, so like... Perfect! He was always gonna be hard to translate to live action, and I saw a lot of people dislike how they portray him here, and I kind of get it? He's not very likeable, he feels like kind of a bad ruler and a bit cruel... And that actually tracks? I read the showrunner said he wanted to focus a bit more on how upset Bumi is about Aang disappearing and reappearing in his life, and that underlying anger absolutely comes through. Bumi is... Kind of scary, and as someone that has a rep for being The Crazy King or whatever, I feel like that perfectly fits!
Jet!!!! He's here!! Kinda feels like it might be a dream ngl, it just has that vibe? Or maybe that's just how happy I am to see they didn't abandon him haha. He's... Still only gonna interact with Katara though, isn't he? :(
Uh? So, I'm gonna have to be filled in on when Katara learned physical self defense. It was very cool, but it felt like nothing I've ever seen her to do before. Anyway real cool moment for Katara there overall, it was great! It in particular really stands out against the cartoon in the way she manifests her anger. She's like. Definitely angry here, and it's very clear she's also just once again tempering it and moving on- no time for this, no time for Jet, no time for fighting... And at some point all of those repressed feelings are gonna have to overflow. It was a very cool scene, but it was, once again, sorely lacking Sokka's presence. More than anything, I just. Wish for these two to meet independent of Katara and get to have their own clash. Honestly? I feel like they could potentially catch two birds with one stone by having the Gaang split up earlier next season, specifically, have Suki help them get to Ba Sing Se earlier so get to meet Jet or something. Idk, the idea isn't fully formed, but it definitely feels like the most likely point for them to get to meet and it would make me really happy for everyone to have a bit more interaction with Suki before she formally joins them in the last season. Like? Maybe Jet and Sokka meeting could be Sokka's story in a Tales of Ba Sing Se sort of episode? As much as I love the haiku club... It's almost certainly getting the chop- also, I heard that the biggest and most important plotpoint of that episode already gets revealed in this first season so? It's likely just not gonna happen, or if it does it might just be like, a bonus one for fun idk. Regardless that season has a lot of "filler" that can easily be dropped, and Jet and Sokka meeting feels to important to just. Never happen, and!! I want it so badly, fuck!!
Yo ngl Zuko's helmet do be making him look like Melonlord
Lol prompting a conflicted Zuko with "well? Are you just gonna stand there? What are you gonna do?" Is fucking hysterical
Bumi is fr so pathetic, fucking no one likes his jokes but his the king and having people have to laugh this time is genuinely hilarious. It also makes everything so much more menacing!! I get why people didn't like what they did with him, but I think it's an interesting direction to go with his character and I think they handle it really well. If anything? Having to stick to some of the original characteristics and reusing the jokes really hurt his momentum imo
The Omashu story looks beautiful!! Ngl I don't really understand why they changed it to a lesbian couple? It literally changes nothing, their genders doesn't matter to the story, so I genuinely don't care one way or the other, it's just... A strange choice to make haha
The singing nomads are always fun, though in my ideal Secret Tunnel scenario they go in with Sokka and Katara and annoy the shit out of Sokka. Miss them already. Also, I do miss Dee Bradley Baker- just. In general, but also, can't help but think of him when I see these guys- it's his song after all!
Forgot to comment on Iroh taking the Lotus tile last episode, so I'm happy to see it back in action here! Do kinda wonder how June will track him in the last season without his smelly sandal though haha
Really cool scene with the rock candy!! Obviously the original way it's presented is off the table, and they instead made it into a really beautiful little action scene!
Ngl something about seeing Zuko pick up a White Lotus got me choked up a bit. The hesitation with Zuko between Aang and Iroh didn't really feel like that big a deal here given the different circumstances behind Iroh's capture, I mean? Obviously Zuko was never gonna abandon Iroh after he sacrificed himself, so not going after Aang here wasn't really that much of a sacrifice on his part in comparison, just... Basic decency to return the favor, which kinda lessened the impact and you might as well miss there was even a conflict with how little of the episode he spends thinking of Aang, but. I like it, it's sweet to see their connection here anyway. Definitely does feel like Zuko is a bit too close to redemption at all times during this season though, Iroh is being WAY too obvious about his true allegiances imo, but tbf... I doubt anyone could go into ATLA blind nowadays, and maybe making Iroh more transparent and Zuko more sympathetic is a way to later drop the shoe ever harder during Crossroads of Destiny- like, THAT'S how much of a wrong choice he makes there, it goes against his entire characterization thus far... But the bait Azula used was too alluring. Or something like that, idk, maybe it's just. Tough to write such a beloved character back into his worst version? Idk, I kinda get why people wish he was less obviously on a path to redemption but frankly? I think it's just an Iroh issue again, they really seem to struggle with writing him to appear silly or without depth as the first season kinda necessitates, and his unwavering support and pushing for sure make Zuko a lot less lost here. I wish he got to be a bit more, but again: this show was the first time in a long time, maybe ever, that ATLA managed to make me be afraid of Zuko, so. Idk. Mixed feelings- he's not all sugar here AT ALL, but he definitely still is a bit too much for this point. I genuinely do think that Iroh's ability to reach him and be straight to the point needed to be heavily nerfed tbh, I think that's the main issue with Zuko's appearing too sympathetic here
Okay, so. Genuinely not exaggerating here when I say: Sokka saying he has a hunch stole my breath away, made me choke up, and tears welled up in my eyes. Like! THAT'S how taken off guard I was with them bringing back my favorite underrated Sokka trait: his instincts. The time it took me to write this was enough for me to genuinely just start crying while thinking about it, like. Genuinely I'm so happy and relieved this managed to find its way into the show, I'm. A bit overwhelmed rn and I don't know that I can put my feelings about it into words rn so I'll be back when I have something else to say, for now: I am RIDICULOUSLY happy with this development, it means a lot to me personally.
Wait I'm immediately back: this is strange, right? The initial utter joy blinded me but this is like... The exact opposite of what Sokka initially does in this episode, this is kinda funny lmao
I think I can pretty confidently say by now that Sokka and Katara's relationship is my favorite part of this adaptation. They always bring out both the best and the worst in each other, their scenes are always bot fun and also just... Cathartic to me in a personal way because they always manage to hit everything that feels missing until they go at each other. It's genuinely perfect, I love them so much. Like? Yeah Ian Ousley is possibly a stinky liar, but he and Kiawentiio have a great rapport and work really well as the unique twists of their characters that this LA is going for. I really, really enjoy them.
Istg Sokka in the cave is just spitting out one pop culture reference after another and it's genuinely bizarre
So, Iroh was provoking that guy to let him take out his anger, right? That's genuinely the only way I can read that scene for it to make sense. Sympathizing with the guy wouldn't have helped, he wouldn't care that Iroh knows he was wrong and that he only realized it when he lost someone too, so he just let him vent by playing the bad guy ig? Idk what I think of that scene tbh- Iroh being a hated general is something that needed a bit more fleshing out for Zuko taking the throne to make sense, so I don't hate it, but. It was weird to see Iroh be so obstinate in the face of someone who was clearly hurting because of his actions. The expected Iroh move would have been some wise words any sympathy that leads to bonding and healing, and it felt SO weird that it just. Didn't happen, and yet... At the same time, I kinda got it, and I do really appreciate this scene, even if the characterization feels off in a way- which, tbh, most Iroh scenes do. It wasn't a bad one, it just felt really strange to keep expecting him to do something and for him to just... Not. Iroh is definitely both the same and yet feels really different and I just. I can't get used to him tbh.
The flashback mourning scene immediately after was also nice, although it was a bit funny how Dallas just looked exactly the same age when it should've been more than three years in the past. Once again Zuko is slightly too sympathetic too early, but at this point I kinda think that's just what they're going for- they're doubling down on showing him as misguided and wilfully blind rather than cruel, which is a realization you do come to during the first season of the original to be fair... It's just a lot less subtle about it here, with much less time where you just view Zuko as The Enemy. It's very clearly from very early on that this is also his journey, and as that gives me more Zuko... I don't even necessarily hate it lmao, it's just different. I think that so long as they keep being consistent about why Zuko is still refusing to "turn good" it can work really well, and ig with Azula coming early... They increased the pressure on him from both sides, which is actually kinda interesting and something i didn't realize until literally just now. Honestly I think half of the point of me writing these is just... To help me get my thoughts in order, to help me see the show for itself rather than just as a cut down version of the story, and honestly? So far it's actually working really well in terms of helping me come to terms and appreciating some of the weirder/bigger changes they make. Still the one unforgivable change is no Jet and Sokka confrontation- I'm glad they didn't entirely drop what Sokka learns there, but. I just love that episode so much that it being changed so severely really hurts in a way I can't reasonably reconcile. Everything they did and all the reasons for it makes sense, and it all works really well in the end but. It's still just a terrible personal loss haha
I do think that ultimately Katara was right and said something Sokka needed to hear (he's not his dad) and I don't like how it was brushed under the rug a bit but I guess he's not really ready to confront that quite yet- that'll probably come when he reunites with Hakoda, huh?
Oh my god it's happening again!!! Istg it feels like some characters just. Straight up accidentally exist in the wrong universe- Bumi and Kyoshi both chide Aang for traits he doesn't have here, and he never gets called out for the in the original. Genuinely it feels so bizarre, like these characters come from another world where what they're saying is true. More than ever this show feels like it was made by fans who loved the show so much they wanted to see it be better, and when given the opportunity they just kinda... Went ham on both fixing the flaws while also directly acknowledging and trying to fix them, except it doesn't make sense because they don't exist here. It's so disorienting and, frankly, super funny and personally validating to realize the writers also probably had screaming meltdowns over Aang being a bad main character, and feeling so strong about it that they just had to include it still. It feels like the biggest callout post possible, it's genuinely so funny, and as nonsensical as it is... I love it, and for me it makes the show feel like it was written by like mined people- I get it, y'all, I too would both fix and yell at Aang if given the opportunity! It's genuinely such a mood and so relatable of them, so even if it's kind of a mess... I love it, because I get it.
I think it's a really cute and fun twist to have the crystals not be the way, but rather, the badgermoles. It gives both aspects of the cave a chance to show up, and even though I do kinda wish we got to see a disgruntled Sokka strumming his way out of the cave... This was a really sweet resolution. Also, spending most of the time they're in the cave be in the dark and thus under the light of the crystal made for a much more visually interesting episode than it would be otherwise, while also being a nod to them originally being trapped in crystal in Aang's Bumi Adventure. Tbh THESE are two episodes that work great when separating the cast- Sokka and Katara literally did nothing in Bumi's episode, while Aang being there in Cave of Two Lovers did more harm than good in my humble opinion. As I thought I would, I like Sokka and Katara going through the cave together MUCH more- it allowed for a more organic conflict, had more potential for funny moments (that wasn't really utilized because for the most part this adaptation doesn't really do or seem to get comedy- I mean, the funny Bumi moments absolutely bombed here!), and just... Wasn't Kataang focused, which is always a plus!!
Ngl it's kinda embarrassing how much I cared about Sokka's instincts to the point that it made me THAT emotional- btw I don't like that it wasn't followed up on like originally, here it was just brought up and he turned out to be wrong which sucked a bit- unless the crystals were meant to lead them to the badgermole? Idk, wish this was a stronger through line because now he just looks like a fool- which the original episode made sure he wasn't, that was like, the whole point there!!
Genuinely WHERE was this Bumi in the original show,,,,, Anyway this Bumi fight kinda feels like the first cool earthbending we see, which. Ngl, checks out with the original lmao.
My god do I wish Katara and Sokka were able to actually do anything in the original episode with Bumi after seeing this, this was fantastic!!! I'm tearing up, genuinely, this was fantastic!! It really feels like what Aang could've become originally if he was challenged more. I really do appreciate and feel for Bumi here, and for once in a very long time.... I'm also rooting for Aang. That's genuinely not a small thing to accomplish for me! As much as I think what Bumi is saying here has merit, I also believe that this is an Aang that can learn to mediate and make the hard choices when he must- so long as he considers other perspectives, allows his friends to help him, and does the same for them in return. And for how distant Aang feels from Sokka and Katara right now? I believe they genuinely can and will grow closer to a degree they can be this for each other. This was an awesome moment and. Idk. Having genuine faith in Aang feels so foreign to me at this point, almost novel, and I hope to god they don't squander this later on. Watching this episode was actually so healing? Idk if it was just that it took me like, literal hours because I kept pausing to write a lot here so it felt like a long journey to get here, but. I'm really happy with where things ended up, generally!
Uhhh so. Zuko's lot in life is being on water, is it, Iroh? Lmao I know that's absolutely not what he meant but of course my brain IMMEDIATELY started barking "Zutara! Zutara? ZUTARA!" like a rabid dog- that is MY lot in life. Anyway I do think the two Iroh and Zuko scenes at the end here were probably the best ones of the two of them so far! And closing with Zuko having another "Aang vs Iroh" moment just to cement the message here was probably a wise choice especially given how brief the first one was. This one worked a lot better, and it was also really pretty visually!! Actually, for whatever reason I think this show generally looks the best when it's working with blue tones for whatever reason, and as this episode had a lot of them it was one I was constantly really impressed by visually! The green here was a bit hit or miss, but the blue scenes kinda always look really good!! Actually, Wolf Cove looked cool too, and it was pretty blue as well! Hmm. Something to try and pay attention to from now on and if I do a rewatch ig?
This episode honestly did a much better job at adapting two storylines simultaneously, and it was just... Overall better for the most part than the previous one. Bumi was a bit questionable in that he initally leaned too heavily on his original personality and gags rather than embrace this new version (ironically, the opposite of what they should've done with Teo), but for the most part I like the changes they made here! Iroh remains the shakiest and most immersion breaking part of this show- due to no fault of the actor, by the way, he does a good job, the writing is just really inconsistent with him- but if I ignore how uncanny and ooc at times he feels to me, I did generally like his scenes here and what they were meant to do. Genuinely don't know if Iroh is an issue for other people or if for some reason I'm just fixated on him feeling off tbh? Anyway Katara and Sokka were in top form this episode, as I came to expect from scenes that focus on their bond! It was definitely brought down a bit by having to resolve the weaker previous episode and its weird adapations of Jet, Sai and Teo right at the start but it managed to pick itself back up really well- and the Sokka and Katara fight put a nice little bow on it for now, so I'm relatively satisfied with how they wrapped it up. Still hope for a big Sokka and Jet fight though, and still don't really appreciate what they did with Teo. But the bulk of this episode was great- if not in execution, at least in the ideas it portrayed, so I'm happy enough with it tbh.
This post was, once again, a mess as it's just me writing down my thoughts as they occur to me with very minimal editing, if I bother with it at all, but. Yeah it's pretty funny that I'm constantly just lamenting how they remove something and then they still include it later haha, it's becoming kind of a pattern!
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sokkastyles · 22 days
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ATLA LA Ep 6 Thoughts:
I feel like Iroh is more defensive of Zuko than he should be. In the original, Iroh does explain Zuko's side to Jee, but I don't like the implication that Zuko understands sacrifice MORE. OG Iroh never felt like he was justifying Zuko's actions.
I do like the parallel with Zuko disrespecting a superior officer, which is got him banished in the first place, and Zuko disrespecting Zhao, while Zhao uses his past as a earning, and Zuko bullying his crew in the same way he was/is bullied. All because he thought war would be honorable.
Liked the fire sages and Roku but Aang going there to ask Roku for help in saving Katara and Sokka feels strange when he's supposed to be talking to Roku about the actual plot.
Aang: you can't always have been like this. *cue flashback*
BLUE SPIRIT BLUE SPIRIT
I can totally believe Zuko keeps exhaustive notes on everything Avatar related, but of course he never wrote about what happened to him.
The problem with Aang and Zuko having a prolonged conversation here is that it saps the tension out of their relationship.
"Compassion is a sign of weakness" / "I didn't mean to hurt you." The ways we hurt people when we've been hurt.
People talk too much in this show about what they're doing / going to do.
I get the feeling they were trying to make Iroh seem more proactive here, but it kinda has the opposite effect because instead of being paralyzed by shock/horror/guilt, he just like, makes one protest and then steps aside on cue.
"He's your son." "We'll see." It's a test.
It's a test but it's still not one Zuko can pass. Ozai accuses Zuko of holding back but the literal moment Zuko matches his ruthlessness, Ozai gets his excuse to hurt him.
And listen, I've seen some discourse about Zuko fighting back. But one, Zuko is not a skinny little kid here. I do wish they had cast a child actor but at the same time, Liu is so good that I can forgive that. So we have to accept a Zuko who is a little older and does not look as visibly like a child. Two, it doesn't matter whether Zuko fought back, nothing Ozai does to him is justified, but Ozai was absolutely looking for an excuse. The only thing that changes here is the excuse itself. The end result is the same, that Ozai deliberately hurt his son.
Azula's look of fascination is pretty perfect.
Aang's actor is good here. This is the scene between Aang and Zuko in the OG. Not sure why it was necessary for Zuko and Aang to have that talk before if they were also going to keep this scene. Again, this show has a problem with the pacing because characters keep stopping to give unnecessary exposition. I know we all want more Aang and Zuko but it doesn't quite work.
I still don't think Ozai's justification works.
The idea of Zuko's crew being the 41st is compelling. The idea that Ozai punished Zuko for having compassion by making him responsible for the people he refused to dehumanize, perhaps in the hope that he would eventually come to hate them. And it seemed like it was on its way to working. What I hate is the way the show frames things here by making it seem like it's the crew's responsibility to understand Zuko, and then suddenly they all worship him. The original showed us that Zuko still had compassion, and that was what earned the crew's respect, more than Iroh's story. It's also weird to have this happen after Zhao commandeers the crew, because Jee was right, that he, especially, knows the penalty for not following orders, and knowing Zuko's story only emphasizes how little autonomy the 41st actually have when up against someone like Zhao.
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sexynbgfpollhost · 1 month
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My review of ATLA Live Action episode one:
(Keep in mind, at this point I have only seen episode 1 and so this is just my first impression)
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Remember, there are spoilers ahead and I seriously think you should watch it yourself before reading any review. Trust me, having your own impression first before anyone else's is way better... Okay here we go:
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Review of episode one, first impressions:
I really loved how we got to see what the air temple genocide looked like. It really shows that they're fully aware that the main audience has grown up. I watched it with my sister, her hubby, and my 5-yr niece and we didn't know that it would literally show people getting burned alive, so we had to cover her eyes a lot lol. I loved how we got to see firelord Sozin when he was first declaring war.
I really liked how we got to see monk Gyatsu (having that name in 2024 is sure rough buddy..) actually want Aang to have a childhood before they told him he's the avatar. The bending looks really cool, not slow and cringey like in the first live action movie haha. I thought the way that one air-bender died, the woman doing the air tornado, was fricken BRUTAL. And it's great to see just how far they're going with the onscreen death.
My brother-in-law (sister's hubby) felt really iffy on the fact that Aang can just sort of fly on his own now, without his glider thing. I honestly don't mind it, I don't think it really affects the story all that much. And it also just.. makes sense, for an air-bender to be able to fly on their own. I love how they got the grandma to say the original intro from the cartoon in a natural way as an explanation to Aang.
I liked how they kept the original motifs. The fire tribe still has that classic "BUM bum bUm baaaaam" idk how else to describe it haha
Aang: I thought his acting was pretty good for a kid. The crying parts were decent at best... but obviously I don't expect a kid to be great at faking tears. I thought his acting was great when he learned that he was the avatar, just that silent panic, the breathing getting faster and darting the eyes. The scene where he closed himself in the ice ball thing looked really cool. (My brother-in-law was fanboying the whole time, so much so that my niece started imitating him by saying "O M G the acting is SO good!" which made us all laugh, she didn't have ill-intent, she was just learning by example)
Katara: Her acting was a little iffy to me, I have hope that it'll improve later on. She had good lines but her face just didn't make me believe those lines. During emotional moments she was just kinda '_' But I know how tough it is to be a child actor so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. (And to be fair, it is hard to convey emotion as good as a cartoon can) Her water bending looked really pretty, and I love that they kept her hair loopies. And I love that she still has her motherly personality like when she was comforting Aang near the end.
Sokka: Again, I thought his acting was pretty decent, child actors and whatnot. I really love how they didn't just reuse the same jokes from the cartoon and got original. My favorite two jokes were when it cut to him screaming on Appa, and when Aang said that he had to save the world and Sokka's response was like "Gee, is that all?" sarcastically, got a good laugh outta me. I love how his weapon looked exactly like the one in the cartoon. And I love how he got to have a one-on-one stand off with Zuko.
Haven't seen Momo yet, gonna be a bit disappointed if we don't but I mean.... Now that I think about it, Momo didn't really add anything. He was just kinda there in the cartoon for comedic affect...
Anyway, just in case someone is reading this before watching it, I'm not gonna spoil/talk about anything else (like Zuko and Iroh). So please go get your own impressions of it, even if you have to watch it on a pirated site.
Thanks for reading :)
(Side note, I do wish they chose tanner actors for the water tribe but eh, what the hell do I know? Could just be the lighting that's making them look pale)
Edit: So I just found out that Sokka and Katara's actors are not children lol (well, Karata's is 17 but that's almost an adult) so it is now a little less excusable.... But whatever, it's okay.
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