Watched episodes 5 & 6.
Damn, I thought Ko was creepy in animation, but he's even worse in photorealistic CGI.
The flashbacks and visions gave us some nice insights into the characters.
The one change that really stood out with this one is cutting out almost the whole storyline with Aang in the prison.
I'm not entirely sure I liked the flashbacks and visions element (Sokka's especially I could have done without, I really don't care for them changing Hakoda that way. Or not making it ambiguous if Hakoda really said that), but Koh ended up being done
much better than I feared, I was quite impressed by that. I was disappointed we didn't see Hei Bai heal though, they could have done that instead of the Wan Shi Tong cameo.
Another related thought, the designs for the "live action" ostrich horses is kind of weird, they don't really have any horse elements, and they're yellow now, so they basically just turned them into chocobos.
Glad I'm not the only one that thought of chcobos!
Some thoughts of mine:
The Good: The casting for the core trio was excellent. Sokka in particular really impresses me in terms of "this is clearly Sokka" when I wasn't sure he'd translate well. Aang is more serious and less whimsical, but that just goes with the whole tone of the adaptation vs the original; there's less time and to some extent less interest in whimsy and humor.
Katara to me is
mostly the same, but maybe more introspective and setting things up for future development. By the end of the series I felt like I missed her sarcasm and bossiness and general 'bite' but it wasn't a bad adaptation. I really liked the actress and thought she did a good job for sure. The fight against Zuko ending the way it did in the last episode was a bit of a shame, although I understand it was a matter of changing things.
I was less sure about Zuko and Iroh at first but they quickly grew on me and Iroh especially feels like a really good but different adaptation. The relationship between Zuko and Iroh is one of the highlights of the season and showing their early relationship is probably one of the best things they do. Lu Ten's funeral and the "Leaves of the Vine" instrumental in particular is a
really powerful sequence. And adding the stuff about the 41st Division I thought was an excellent stroke. Zuko actually comes off much more sympathetic in this adaptation, and if they keep the same arc then his actions at the end of Season 2 will be even more shocking.
(sidebar: I read that Paul Sun-Hyung Lee was asked to sing "Leaves of the Vine" and refused because that's Mako's song - I already really liked his performance once I got used to it, but that just made me respect him even more.)
The way they recombine and mix stuff together - especially in episodes 3 & 4 - is really smartly done. Combining Jet, Omashu, the Mechanist, and even the Cave of Two Lovers into a single two-parter? I wouldn't have expected that to work but putting Jet and the Mechanist in the same storyline was actually a fantastic move, in my option. And rather than highlighting the siblings' personal failings/issues (and overcoming them) in separate episodes they combine them, culminating in strengthening the sibling bond in the Cave.
The action, effects, choreography, costuming, etc... all the mechanical stuff... I thought was really good, really well done. Bending martial arts that looked like martial arts.
MY CABBAGES!
There's a couple time skips and they allude to adventures in between that correspond to stuff that wasn't adapted. Minor little detail but a nice touch.
Overall I'd say it feels more cohesive with the latter two seasons by introducing elements that become more important later or weren't even introduced yet. I wasn't sure whether to call this good or indifferent but I'll call it goood here.
Suki: more of her please!
I'm glad they dropped the love triangle in the finale and instead turned Hahn into a supportive guy instead. Added to the feels with what happened to him.
Jun, for her small appearance, was straight out the cartoon - except making her hit on Iroh instead of vice versa was a lot more fun.
Bringing in more of Kuruk especially was fascinating.
The Bad/Complaints: While I don't mind introducing Azula and showing what she's doing beforehand, I'm not sure I'm convinced by the actress yet, even by the end of the season. Sometimes she seems to really embody Azula's sociopathy and sadism and sometimes she seems pouty instead. Same with Mei and Tai Lee to an even greater extent; but so far those two have such small roles and Azula is getting better. I think she might get better over time/writing. It's a personal complaint but I wish they'd stuck with blue fire and then showed the lightning at the end but of course, we didn't see her in Season 1 of the animated show. One thing in particular was that the animated show at least makes a point of saying that lightning-bending depends on internal peace; if they stick with that, has Azula found her internal peace (in being a sociopathic monster) by the end of Season 1?
While I get what they're going for with Zhao and Ken Leung does a good job with it, I much preferred original Zhao as an antagonist. Granted part of this is Jason Isaacs has such a badass voice but also just the writing. He's basically a victim of bringing Azula in from the near-beginning. I agree with whoever it was that said keeping Zhao as a powerful, intimidating, but grasping villain that is still subordinated to Azula would have made her more intimidating
I get it, but I do think it's a shame that they're doing much less whimsy and humor. Bumi probably gets hit with this the worst (I mean, he does still have some though). I could put Bumi in "Good" as well, but I can see why some people might find it disappointing. If you like acknowledging the effect of 100 years of war, you might be perfectly cool with it.
For needing to master all 4 elements, Aang seems to... not be trying to do that. I wish we'd seen him at least trying to waterbend, but maybe it'll be something that's addressed next season.
It's one particular moment, but I missed the way Zuko and Katara's end-of-season-fight ended. "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" was such a dramatic moment, and in the adaptation Zuko breaking free seems so... nochalant
.
The "It's just different": Bumi should probably go here. I miss the whimsy, but emphasizing the trauma of war makes sense.
"They got rid of Sokka's character development" - to me at least - seems overdone. He's less explicitly sexist, yes, but there's still shades of it. It's just less... well, cartoonie. And they're focusing more on him dealing with feeling like he had the responsibility to protect everybody, it seems like.
Making the Cave about the siblings was fun, but add me to the chorus of those that finds it a little disappointing that they removed all ship teases entirely. I assume it's because of the awkwardness of how different they looked, but I hope they start it in Season 2 then.
I'm still unsure how I feel about them showing some of the stuff like the Air Nomad genocide, the start of the war, and the attack on the village where Katara watched her mom die, instead of saving that for later. I'd call it just "different" - well done, maybe not how I'd do it, but well done. 
