Spoilers Avatar: The Last Airbender - Netflix Live Action Version

[JD]

Dallas Lu's performace as Zuko isn't as subdued as the animated version, but he still feels close enough to me. I haven't really seen much of the animated Azula so I can't really compare the two versions of her.
Watched episode 4
I wasn't sure how they were going to handle Bumi, since he is one of the show's more over the top characters, but I thought they pulled it off pretty well. The really did a great job.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Zuko, despite being an antagonistic threat, is likeable; Sokka is just an obnoxious twit.

In the live action show? That hasn't been my impression.

 

[DigificWriter]

In the live action show?

In everything.

Sokka's character was almost enough to make me stop watching the animated version of the show, but I forced myself to finish the first season before eventually giving up when he got to be too insufferable and the overall story got bogged down with useless filler.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In everything.

Sokka's character was almost enough to make me stop watching the animated version of the show, but I forced myself to finish the first season before eventually giving up when he got to be too insufferable and the overall story got bogged down with useless filler.

Seems like a likable guy in the live action. No experience with the cartoon version.

 

[JD]

I haven't had a problem with him in either version.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ I'm probably the only person to have ever watched anything ATLA-related who isn't a Sokka fan.

 

[fireproof78]

He's perfectly fine in the live action version.

 

[Tuskin38]

Netflix claims TLA is the #1 show in the world.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Wow, episode 8 was epic AF! I didn't remember enough from the cartoon series or maybe watched the later seasons more so I was actually quite anxious for much of it.

Netflix claims TLA is the #1 show in the world.

Nice to see something rise against "middling numbers" and critical indifference.

 

[SJGardner]

I'm still waiting for a word back from my friends if we're watching this together so I haven't seen it yet, but based on the pre-release material I've been cautiously optimistic. I'm generally indifferent about live-action adaptations of animated classics, not having seen the Disney ones, but I'm planning to give this one a chance as ATLA has been one of my major fandoms for almost a decade now.

However, I will have to say that the reactions I've seen from the fandom are nothing short of terrifying and downright appalling, and chillingly reminiscent of what I've been experiencing in most fandoms since the mid-2010s. I was already concerned when a bunch of loud people started misinterpreting production statements about adapting stuff for live-action as the creators not understanding the source material and changing core concepts on a whim to the point where obvious jokes mocking the reactions were in turn taken at face value, ending up in people fearmongering that Toph wasn't going to be blind and Ozai was going to be a kind and good dad just because the creators said Sokka's misogyny was going to be presented in a less cartoonish fashion. This might come back to bite me after I've actually seen the show, but oh well.

But the reactions to some of the actresses have left me with a lot of disgust towards this fandom. Some of them have their appearances constantly mocked, ranging from nitpicking about "completely different face shapes" than their animated originals signifying miscast roles (counters about acting like a character being more important than looking like them being shot down with blanket declarations of them being bad performers anyway, so "they could've just as well cast someone who at least looked the part") to outright fatshaming them due to their round faces, which would apparently ruin the verisimilitude of their future fight scenes. And then there's Katara's actress who has seen her Instagram be flooded with a torrent of hatred, pegging the apparent catastrophic failure of the series solely on her for apparently being a bad actress, some even demanding that she not only quit the series but retire from acting altogether.

I was toying with the idea of joining the main subreddit so that I could join the revitalized discussion, but that community is basically a huge dumpster fire now. Any and all discussion of the franchise is completely drowned out by a constant stream of posts all declaring the show to be an unwatchable and pile of crap that ruined their childhoods (with an omnipresent misuse of the word "objective" that shouldn't surprise anyone), calling people who like it mentally challenged, with some people visibly grasping at straws to find reasons to hate it (some even complained that the costumes not being dirty enough ruined their immersion) just because it's trendy to do so. All in all, I find it extremely reminiscent of the Star Wars fandom after The Last Jedi came out, complete with the original creators being put on a pedestal as though the fans haven't been spewing all kinds of vitriol at them because they blamed them for everything they hated about the previous installment of the franchise.

Someone said on a different subreddit that they just can't participate in fandom subreddits anymore as they're all filled with the same kind of hate-everything mindset drowning out everything else, and I have to agree with them. I mean I've learned not to mention Rey within earshot of Star Wars fans a long time ago. The inevitable fights are just not worth it.

 

[Christopher]

However, I will have to say that the reactions I've seen from the fandom are nothing short of terrifying and downright appalling, and chillingly reminiscent of what I've been experiencing in most fandoms since the mid-2010s.

It's awful how a toxic minority has become so dominant in fan discourse. They're not actually "fans" of anything; fans are people who enjoy or love things, and these people are just bullies looking for targets to attack. We need more moderation on online forums to keep this sort of thing in check.

Naturally, anyone who has misogynistic sentiments toward any of the actresses has completely missed the point of a franchise full of strong, badass heroines and has no business calling themselves an Avatar fan. That's how I know they represent a minority of the fandom no matter how much they strive to monopolize the online discourse. It's important to keep that in mind and not believe their lies that they represent the mainstream view, the same as with any other extremist voices. Unfortunately, that doesn't lessen the impact of their deliberate bullying of performers and creators.

Also, while I understand the desire to walk away from the toxic environments they create, it seems to me that's what they want -- to make it so unpleasant that people with reasonable or positive things to say are driven away and silenced, ceding the floor to the bullies. So we probably shouldn't let them silence us, should continue to engage and make sure more positive opinions are included in the mix -- as long as we don't let ourselves get drawn into arguments with the haters who attack us for our opinions. Just say our piece and move on.

 

[fireproof78]

Yup.

I watched it with Star Wars and continued to contribute because negativity doesn't need to dominate.

 

[DigificWriter]

Haven't actually seen the episode yet, but got spoiled for a detail in Episode 4 that I've been wanting to comment on for a couple of days.

Spoiler

Making both Oma and Shu women makes their forbidden love story more than just a Romeo and Juliet pastiche, which is good because one of the things that I hated about Season 2 of the animated version that wasn't related to Sokka being an insufferable twit was the blatant and poorly done reskinning of stuff from our world (i.e. Earthbender "pro wrestling").

Turning the backstory of Omashu's creation into a sapphic tragedy also adds new layers of representative diversity to the ATLA world, which is good.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'm still waiting for a word back from my friends if we're watching this together so I haven't seen it yet, but based on the pre-release material I've been cautiously optimistic. I'm generally indifferent about live-action adaptations of animated classics, not having seen the Disney ones, but I'm planning to give this one a chance as ATLA has been one of my major fandoms for almost a decade now.

Unfortunately, the people most familiar with the show seem to be the ones who like this the least.

I looked at the subreddit the other night and it really seems that anything less than a 1:1 shot-for-shot retelling won't suffice for many. That is why the recent news of the Naruto live action has me cringing in anticipation, I imagine the voices will be even louder for that one.

But the reactions to some of the actresses have left me with a lot of disgust towards this fandom. Some of them have their appearances constantly mocked, ranging from nitpicking about "completely different face shapes" than their animated originals signifying miscast roles (counters about acting like a character being more important than looking like them being shot down with blanket declarations of them being bad performers anyway, so "they could've just as well cast someone who at least looked the part") to outright fatshaming them due to their round faces, which would apparently ruin the verisimilitude of their future fight scenes. And then there's Katara's actress who has seen her Instagram be flooded with a torrent of hatred, pegging the apparent catastrophic failure of the series solely on her for apparently being a bad actress, some even demanding that she not only quit the series but retire from acting altogether.

I finished this up last night and noticed the round faces myself but just noted it as interesting/different from the norm, not that they were fat. I didn't dig far enough in the comments to see that but it's a shame.

 

[Christopher]

Unfortunately, the people most familiar with the show seem to be the ones who like this the least.

I'm one of the people most familiar with the show, and I'm one of the ones who like the remake the most. Don't mistake the loudest complainers for the majority. People who choose to express their opinions online are never a statistically representative sample, just a tiny self-selected group that usually skews disproportionately negative.

I looked at the subreddit the other night and it really seems that anything less than a 1:1 shot-for-shot retelling won't suffice for many. That is why the recent news of the Naruto live action has me cringing in anticipation, I imagine the voices will be even louder for that one.

Which is exactly why those voices should be ignored. People who want an exact duplication are missing the entire point of doing a new version. For one thing, it's a redundant waste of time to do an exact copy of something that already exists. For another, a remake in a new medium is not made exclusively for the existing audience, since they already have their own version. A remake is done primarily to introduce the story to a new audience.

 

[fireproof78]

Which is exactly why those voices should be ignored. People who want an exact duplication are missing the entire point of doing a new version. For one thing, it's a redundant waste of time to do an exact copy of something that already exists. For another, a remake in a new medium is not made exclusively for the existing audience, since they already have their own version. A remake is done primarily to introduce the story to a new audience.

And, once again, this series has done this excessively well, inviting people that I know are not familiar, or not willing to invest time, in the animated series. It is a great introduction, and invites more engagement.

 

[DigificWriter]

The YouTube reactors I'm following are all die-hard fans of the animated version, and their reactions have all been universally positive, so @Christopher is right: loud negative voices should not in any way be seen as being generally representative of the fandom response to the live-action version.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

That's fair enough, I meant that observation as something I had seen among the complainers. With @SJGardner saying ATLA was one of their major fandoms I worried they might end up disappointed if they went in with certain expectations. Probably overly trepidatious because I had just mucked through reading some of that type of fandom and it was fresh in my mind.

 

[Christopher]

That's fair enough, I meant that observation as something I had seen among the complainers. With @SJGardner saying ATLA was one of their major fandoms I worried they might end up disappointed if they went in with certain expectations. Probably overly trepidatious because I had just mucked through reading some of that type of fandom and it was fresh in my mind.

I think you'd have to be really rigidly purist to feel the adaptation wasn't faithful enough. I felt it captured the characters and world extremely well, not just in terms of replicating the surface forms, but in terms of understanding their essence and ideas well enough to make changes that were still true to the substance. The problem with purists is that they think the surface form of a thing is its only meaning.

 

[JD]

Unfortunately, the people most familiar with the show seem to be the ones who like this the least.

I looked at the subreddit the other night and it really seems that anything less than a 1:1 shot-for-shot retelling won't suffice for many. That is why the recent news of the Naruto live action has me cringing in anticipation, I imagine the voices will be even louder for that one.



I finished this up last night and noticed the round faces myself but just noted it as interesting/different from the norm, not that they were fat. I didn't dig far enough in the comments to see that but it's a shame.

It's not all hate, it's got a 7.4 on IMDB, which is pretty when you consider how a lot of big franchise movies and shows tend to be treated on there. And it also has a 6.5 fan rating on Metacritic, which is still pretty decent for that has supposed had such a horrible response.

For another, a remake in a new medium is not made exclusively for the existing audience, since they already have their own version. A remake is done primarily to introduce the story to a new audience.

One of my favorite things about these kind of adaptations is seeing how the put new twists on things. I loved how the show mashed the mechanist, Jet, and Bumi storylines into one two part storyline.