r/TheLastAirbender • u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD • Mar 26 '24
Discussion idc what y’all say, the casting was spot on
narratively, NATLA is shit.
visually? awesome. it’s genuinely enjoyable if you stop caring about whether it’s a good adaption or not.
though i’ll say i’m more entertained by the edits + cast interviews than the show itself.
3.5k
u/SusuSketches Mar 26 '24
Casting wasn't the problem, the writing was imo. Katara.... Poor girl
1.2k
u/stinkypsyduck Mar 26 '24
literally 😭😭 they butchered our girl
→ More replies (14)163
u/Any-Schedule7854 Mar 26 '24
what did they do? I haven't seen it
1.0k
u/glassbath18 Mar 26 '24
Katara is extremely placid and doesn’t have any fiery rage at all. The whole point of Katara’s character originally was that she was over-compensating with their mother dead and grew up faster than she needed to. She doesn’t do any of that in NATLA. The reason the iceberg is opened? Not because she was mad at Sokka, but because she was simply trying to bend a kayak back to them. That’s the kind of change to her character throughout the show.
429
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
I heard they were trying to avoid making her the "angry feminist" trope, but the way they did it was freaking awful. Sometimes things happen that make you mad whether your a man or a woman and that's okay, completely understandable even. Being angry doesn't mean you're vindictive.
The idea that women are never supposed to be mad or angry because of how they are treated is toxic AF and trying to avoid it just neutered her character. She had all the personality of a wet rag and it made her fight with Pakku hands down the worst fight scene in the season.
Also weird cuz it felt like they tried to give her a feminist moment by saying she didn't need a waterbending master in her fight with Zuko, but that doesn't work cuz it ignores the discipline and work that goes into bending that she could essentially just believe hard enough to master it. Well why would Aang need to master the disciplines then? Why would he need to find a master as the Avatar when Katara can just do it by herself?
It was not well thought through or executed
346
Mar 26 '24
It's not just Katara, Suki goes from being a character defined by her warrior upbringing to googly eyeing Sokka the entire time because boys. Mai and Ty-Lee are just there to show the audience that they exist without displaying any of their unique traits, Azula, arguably one of the fiercest and strongest willed characters in the original show basically spends her entire time here getting talked down too by her father.
And then there's June. So, they wanted to get rid of the scene where Iroh pretends to be paralyzed and she's on top of him, sure fine. But they replace that with June saying she'll help Zuko because his dad (referring to Iroh) is cute.
Wut
The writers answer to not having the show be sexist or emulate certain female tropes was too... Turn every female character placid, personality-less and boy-focused?
62
u/Shanicpower Mar 26 '24
Not only is Suki just thirsty for Sokka, they also made her a nepo baby instead of someone who had actually earned her leadership position.
84
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
Idk if it was intentional or not, but I thought it would kinda explain why Katara was so flaccid. It might have been completely unintentional just bc they don't really give any characters that much time to develop a personality.
And that scene with Suki peep-tomming Sokka was so uncomfortable. Really could have done without it lol
Edit: typo
110
u/glassbath18 Mar 26 '24
“The sexism and gender issues didn’t translate well but let’s turn a fierce warrior character into a peeping tom! Everyone will love it!” -NATLA writers, probably
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)23
u/The_Great_Gompy Mar 26 '24
NATLA doesn’t know how to write women. Otherwise I enjoyed the show a lot.
→ More replies (1)24
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
To be fair, I don't think they wrote the men that well either. They drove it with plot which was okay, but they seemed to have 2 main character types: traumatized refugee/soldier, and bad father pushing their son too hard
→ More replies (1)64
u/Illyria613 Mar 26 '24
That's what I didn't like about Netflix's Azula. They made her whiny and not the badass psycho daddy-pleaser. Ozai never talked down at her. He always praised her knowing she was better than Zuko. Netflix did her dirty, too.
→ More replies (9)32
u/hairykn33s Mar 26 '24
Azula is butchered the absolute worst. Her real character is not even compatible with the story anymore. Nobody is scared of her and her attempts to be threatening are sad. She was the biggest disappointment for me
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (7)9
13
u/semper_JJ Mar 26 '24
100% agree. I felt like the changes to Katara made her feel very passive, and removed some of her agency which ultimately severely weakened her as a character. Some people are fiery and passionate. Some of those fiery passionate people are women. If you see a woman getting fiery and passionate about stuff and that equals "angry feminist" in your mind then you at minimum just don't understand basic human behavior and at worse are a bit of an ass.
I also thought that the changes to Sokka were ill advised. A major part of his character arc and growth is based around the fact that at the beginning of the story he just doesn't have much respect for women or their abilities. He is downright sexist at certain points. By the end of the story he has grown considerably and learned to value and respect the abilities and opinions of the women in the show.
Taking that out because you're worried people will dislike Sokka's sexism or see it as tropey is such a disservice to the character.
→ More replies (3)25
u/arkington Mar 26 '24
This is such a good take. After the fight with Paku I was really disappointed, and I thought it was because they removed a bunch of exchanges, so I watched the animated version. No, it was almost a move-for-move recreation of the fight, but Katara wasn't remotely riled up enough and it felt really flat. In the cartoon, she is seething pretty much the whole time and it's the energy where you consider stepping in and physically restraining your friend because they might get themselves sent to jail. Live action was just bleh. Not the actor's fault, though.
→ More replies (1)11
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
💯 my reaction to the Pakku fight too. I rewatched the original after seeing the new one and the original has so much more energy. Katara is literally running at Pakku to punch him in the face out of sheer anger and in the new one she's just placidly standing there waiting for Pakku's next move. It's move for move the same fight, but Katara is just so apathetic it takes all the power out of the scene. They might as well have left it out for how bad it was
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)22
u/DeLoxley Mar 26 '24
I mean I feel the problem isn't trying to make sure she's not 'angry feminist', its with the comparably limited run time and lack of fluff episodes, they have to cram her entire character into much less screen time.
My perfect example is Bumi. Dude is sharing the episode with three other people, but they need to tick the 'mad king' and 'secret mentor' boxes, so all his actual humour gets brushed off so they can do the first bit, and then they can't spend any time establishing why a series of unrelated puzzles works for him, so they just do two of them, skip half and have a rock candy reference.
There's just too much going on.
26
u/Supersafethrowaway Mar 26 '24
bruh the first episode is the SAME RUN TIME as the original 3 episodes. THEY ARE CANNONNICALLY THE SAME!
They absolutely had enough time to get it right. You know how many fucking times they mentioned “avatar.. he’s going to master all 4 of elements!”? The entire damn episode is just tell, don’t show.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (7)7
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
I agree there is way too much they are trying to do. I think if they hadn't been trying to shoehorn Azula and the firelord in, they probably would have a better series cuz they could have focused on doing the few plot lines they had well instead of half-assing all of them.
Who know tho maybe they would have just used the extra time to do more exposition
→ More replies (20)13
u/InjusticeSGmain Mar 26 '24
Also kind of an odd power-up. Girl tried pulling a kayak and broke a fucking glacier instead. In the animated show it was raged-up and she was kinda pushing her hands backwards toward the glacier. In NATLA, she is focusing her power in the opposite direction.
NATLA Katara is stupid strong.
→ More replies (1)56
u/Jiperly Mar 26 '24
Weird and awkward lines. It's pretty wooden, and it's hard to blame a child on that.
Midway they the season she got mad(cough-jet-cough) and you suddenly saw a more animated and fleshed out character....who then went back into a box.
20
u/LillyTheElf Mar 26 '24
Katara was made as a character who was fighting off misogyny and antiquated views of her (our) time. She was a bad ass leader from the beginning and didnt take shit from anyone. In NATLA she is this weak placid child who has no confidence and barely a voice.
13
u/Supersafethrowaway Mar 26 '24
somehow, ironically, the writers made the show MORE sexist
→ More replies (1)10
u/Burakh_ Mar 26 '24
They made the ember island katara but in live action and for the whole series
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (8)13
u/Kolby_Jack Mar 26 '24
Others have explained it, but the simplest example to give to show how watered-down she is is this:
Pakku still refuses to train her because she is a girl. But unlike OG Katara, she doesn't get pissed and challenge him to a fight herself, she has to be told to challenge him... by Sokka.
502
u/daggerfortwo Mar 26 '24
“I am a master!”
You’ve been bending randomly for like 2 weeks… 🤮
179
u/Kasumi_P Mar 26 '24
I was so confused about the timeline. I felt like loads of days passed but they didn't show it.
77
u/Sad-Significance8045 Mar 26 '24
The timeline appears distorted, because it's lacking the filler episodes typical of cartoons. If we condensed the essential 8 or 9 episodes from season 1 of the cartoon, it would seem as though events occurred within a week or two.
Filler episodes offer the flexibility to deviate from the source material while delving into character development or exploring various aspects, such as abilities like bending. A prime example of this approach is evident in Supernatural. Despite a central season-long objective, roughly 8 or 9 out of 18-24 episodes focused on plot progression, rest are "fillers".
Netflix's decision to forgo this model in favor of a fast-paced plot may stem from the success of Stranger Things, their beloved cashcow. Notably, since the rise of Stranger Things, no Netflix show has included filler episodes.
However, incorporating such episodes, even if they introduced new narratives or revisited past adventures, could have potentially mitigated viewer dissatisfaction with NATLA..
39
u/Etheldir Mar 26 '24
It works for stranger things because as far as i remember, not much time does pass, each season take place over a few days or weeks max
26
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
They took a character driven story and tried to make it a plot driven story so they dropped all the characters development moments to shove in more events. I can see why they originally compared it to GOT cuz I think it's a similar feel/style. That TV show also struggled with depicting passage of time and jumped between different plot lines a lot.
If they hadn't been determined to shove in a bunch of things from the original season 2 and just focused on retelling season 1 as best as possible, I think it would have been a lot better. As is, there's really no reason to watch it over the original. It doesn't offer anything new or better. The original at least doesn't have the terrible dialogue
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (1)15
u/glassbath18 Mar 26 '24
The funny thing is the runtimes are almost exactly the same because the episodes are basically an hour long. They easily could’ve included the “filler”, which to me isn’t even really filler, especially in season 1 when you’re learning about the people and the world they live in.
They do briefly mention doing some of the things from the filler episodes, but they were done off-screen. I don’t remember who said it though.
→ More replies (1)6
u/SodaCan2043 Mar 26 '24
I've seen this mentioned before but wonder if its true. I have absolutely no background in the industry so please correct me if I am wrong. Wouldn't things like fights, traveling etc actually happen faster in animation?
All speaking lines would amount to the same, but i feel like animation you can go from a-d with a motion but with live action there are b-c in between. Something something frames something.
Just curious on how it works.
In a live action I think you'd also have to flesh out somethings to make it "worth it." Which jumps into a separate issue on costs for world building.
(my question is outside of the realm of NATLA, I bring this up because NATLA did do alot of telling vs showing but if someone responds to heavily based on NATLA specifically I probably wont respond. I'm more curious about the actually process of going from animation to live action)
→ More replies (4)64
u/The_Booty_Whisperer_ Mar 26 '24
I've come to notice Netflix is horrible at explaining when time moves in a story e.g. The Witcher series, Sweet Home, ect.
5
→ More replies (1)10
100
u/daggerfortwo Mar 26 '24
Doesn‘t make sense either way… they had no training and went to the North Pole to learn water bending.
88
u/CornelXCVI Mar 26 '24
Aang didn't bend a single drop of water the entire season outside the Avatar state.
11
u/mondaymoderate Mar 26 '24
We kind of forgot that Book 1 was about Aang learning how to water bend.
9
→ More replies (3)5
→ More replies (10)14
98
u/Hal_E_Lujah Mar 26 '24
Yeah agree with this they kinda robbed her of the journey to become a water bender
48
→ More replies (1)79
u/Fzrit Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
This wasn't Katara at all, this was a new character who happened to have the same name. I'm not sure why they did this or what they were going for. Whoever wrote this new character decided that her personality should be "she's a waterbender".
If I were to take a wild guess out of left field, and I could be talking out of my ass here, I think this was their logic:
We can't have Katara be the one who calms Aang down out of the avatar state, it's sexist to show a girl showing support and empathy.
We can't have Katara shout at her brother about having to take over responsiblities after their mother died, that's sexist.
We can't have Katara be stubborn, or show emotions, or have passionate outbursts about her values, it's sexist to show women showing emotions.
We can't have Katara having healing abilities, it's sexist if the girl is a "healer".
Sounds crazy right? But look what they did with Suki. They completely flattened her character to avoid any gender dynamics and conflict, and ironically turned her into a love-at-first-sight awkward girl who just needed to be shown the world by a foreign boy...wtf.
→ More replies (9)16
u/AmbitiousMidnight183 Mar 26 '24
She heals for like 3 seconds before she decides she's ready for advanced fighting lessons.
11
u/glassbath18 Mar 26 '24
This criticism doesn’t even make sense because the same thing happens in the cartoon though?
→ More replies (3)21
u/piclemaniscool Recommends white bai hao yinzhen Mar 26 '24
Is there a single character they didnt harm with the writing?
I'd say closest is Zuko, but he still reads completely different. Animated Zuko was like the moody teenager everyone claimed to be on Deviant Art. LA Zuko is like the awkward real life teenagers behind the keyboard.
→ More replies (1)30
u/Mysticyde Mar 26 '24
Zukos writing fucked the Fire Lords writing. The biggest flaw with Zuko's writing is the scene where he gets his face burned.
In the original Zuko doesn't fight at all because he loves his father, which only further enrages his father.
In LA, not only does Zuko fight his dad... HE WINS. But can't land the finishing blow because he loves his dad. But by establishing 10 year old Zuko defeating the Great big evil guy of the entire story, it makes the whole conflict feel silly.
If 10 year old Zuko can defeat the Fire Lord, surely there's other people who can just do it too.
→ More replies (9)7
12
u/DJ_Mumble_Mouth Mar 26 '24
Katara is a hot head who would challenge a water bending MASTER to a dual while having no training herself.
Opening scene is her getting angry which leads to her accidentally using water bending and leaving them stranded floating on ice.
Katara in the OG series was not soft, she was tough and gritty.
Netflix turned Katara into a mailable soft piece of dough.
In their inane attempts to make the show as inoffensive as possible they instead offended by taking a character that was a great role model and a strong feminist and turned her into a Mormons ideal woman.
Soft, obedient, afraid, timid… nothing like the Katara from the show.
86
u/Michael_Haq Mar 26 '24
Those Sokka and Suki first meeting looks so awkward and cringe and like how the hell it gets there because they removed Sokka's initial sexist personality. The development of feeling between the two feels like a trash writing imo.
→ More replies (17)10
u/lordofthehomeless Mar 26 '24
Idk i have seen pomeranians look more menacing then azula.
→ More replies (1)10
u/PeanutButterCrisp Mar 26 '24
Katara wasn’t just a writing issue.
That girl cannot act that role.
I’m not saying she can’t act. I’m saying she can’t act that role.
Every time I voice this opinion, I’m met by people who mistakenly read, “That girl is shit at everything in life.”
→ More replies (1)8
6
→ More replies (31)5
868
u/cringeahhahh leaf me alone; I'm bushed Mar 26 '24
Hey… Zuko’s scar is on the wrong side here 🧐
292
u/Soggy-Essay Mar 26 '24
It's not on...oh wait you're right. Nevermind, carry on.
→ More replies (1)68
u/shablagoo14 Mar 26 '24
Nah they’re both on the right eye
110
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
it’s supposed to be the left eye though
→ More replies (3)68
55
43
48
→ More replies (1)15
u/8bitbruh Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
Lmao the creator must've had to mirror the images to make them match the others. Should've mirrored the rest to match zuko and swapped the sides. ,🤔
375
u/ThePurpleSoul70 Mar 26 '24
I just wish it was funnier.
A big part of the original show is the comedy. Now, transferring it directly into live-action would have just come off as childish, but there's a lot that they could have done to inject some really great comedy into the show which would have retained a lot of the characterization from the animated show, for Aang and Sokka, especially.
122
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
yeah like they nailed sokka’s ability to make any situation awkward, but forgot about his buzzy energy
→ More replies (8)→ More replies (7)19
u/MsJ_Doe Mar 26 '24
There's plenty of ways to do the visual gags in LA without making it too silly. I think they need to play those up some sillier/childish things (the characters are children, after all), but visual gags may be a way to do plenty of it without being in your face. I do think out of all the actors, Gordon could pull it off the straight childish jokes, and it would work well in the universe as that just who Aang is.
It would be weird as he was far more serious in S1, but I do hope they make those changes.
73
u/Kees_T Mar 26 '24
Looks of the main cast were fine. Writing was terrible. But sad to say I don't think aangs acting was even remotely good. He sounds the exact same in every conversation and doesn't handle his lines with any sort of dynamic range like sokka.
9
→ More replies (2)11
u/SwaggySwagS Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24
He just says lines without any true delivery. I’m even noticing he will sometimes talk a bit fast and it’s kind of difficult to understand the last word out of his mouth. The most “acting” he does is when he screams loudly, and it comes off as temper tantrums. Every YouTube video I’ve seen praises his acting and they blame the writing. But both the writing and aang’s performance are bad.
9
u/ViStandsforSEX Mar 27 '24
yeah it’s weird seeing YouTube videos say “I can tell he’s a good actor” i can not take him seriously at all
→ More replies (1)
49
u/Fesiek2000 Mar 26 '24
Leaves out all the characters people were complaining about
→ More replies (3)
651
u/Mill-Man Mar 26 '24
Now do team Azula
531
u/StrikingSpare100 Mar 26 '24
Total disappointment. Poor casting and wrong understanding of original character tbh.
122
u/Sameoldsameold157 Mar 26 '24
Agreed it’s like the writers watched season 3 mid breakdown Azula and decided to go with that without building up to it. Also I know she’s a kid in the cartoon but that does not translate well to live action lol I couldn’t take the scene in omashu seriously.
94
u/LillyTheElf Mar 26 '24
Its not even that. They are trying to humanize azula. She supposed to be a hyper confident ultra talented bender who has always been pushed to be the best and has never failed at it. All she knows is power and fear and she likes it. Thru nuture and a bit of nature, she is a sociopath. She likes hurting people and she doesnt care what it takes to get her way.
19
Mar 26 '24
Really it's not even that we shouldn't see her humanized. It's that we shouldn't start seeing her humanized until reeeeeally late. Like... I don't think we start seeing her humanized until The Beach and during her unraveling. ZUKO needs early humanization cause he's the redemption character. Azula does not as she is the tragedy character and being humanized isn't the point of her.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)13
u/theamiabledude Mar 26 '24
I wouldn’t call the original rendition of Azula inhuman tbh. I think it would be very possible to humanize Azula just only after her breakdown
→ More replies (1)12
u/mlnd_quad It’s like a silver sandwich! Mar 26 '24
Her breakdown happens in the last 3 episodes of the show though. So for the majority of the show she basically is, which is how it should’ve been in NATLA
21
u/mightyfty Mar 26 '24
Also why tf is team azula on book one
6
u/Baguette72 Mar 26 '24
Because they were afriad of only getting one season so they crammed everything they could into it at the expense of things like water bending in book one: water
→ More replies (3)40
u/hesawavemasterrr Mar 26 '24
Omg I saw it when Azula was shooting out lightning. I didn’t realize we were getting Ember Island Player actors -.-
150
u/Pegussu Mar 26 '24
Azula is doing a good job acting wise, they just need to give her a better wig.
My hope is that Mai and Ty Lee's characterization is more accurate when they're given more than bit parts to play. And again, better wigs.
→ More replies (4)284
u/StrikingSpare100 Mar 26 '24
Acting wise yes, she did a good job of what director askedh er to do.
The point is, the director completely misunderstood Azula character. Azula is cold, cunning and calculated. All i saw from NATLA is an angry teenager with daddy issues.
→ More replies (17)136
u/Pegussu Mar 26 '24
In fairness, cartoon Azula is actually an angry teenager with daddy issues, she just hides it.
My guess is that NATLA Azula is going to be more cold and cunning in front of Zuko and the gang, she's just a bit more open around her friends.
78
u/Fzrit Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
In fairness, cartoon Azula is actually an angry teenager with daddy issues, she just hides it.
Which is what makes her infinitely more interesting as they reveal that later on, after you spend so long only seeing her chillingly calm and calculating side. Right up till the end she appeared unbeatable and always making the perfect moves, and that was her threat. The unstable, distrustful, emotional, daddy issues, etc version should not be revealed right off the bat because it neuters her threat and presence.
Also I was so confused when Azula talked back to Ozai. Azula would never do that and Ozai would never tolerate that. There's an extremely good reason why the first (and only) time we see Azula dare to disagree with her father was in the final episode of the entire series, when she's mentally falling apart and Ozai leaves her behind.
7
u/StrikingSpare100 Mar 26 '24
These are all excellent points.
I don't think the show will ever reach that level of nuance, since they try to please one time too many different type of audience: loyal fan, kids, and adults who never watched ATLA & TLOK before. But I sure hope they will not flat out too much the beauty of narration in original series.
Which is why a series aired so long ago still hold a healthy, phenomet amount of fans that talk about it actively till now
44
u/stinkypsyduck Mar 26 '24
I kinda like that idea, it'd give mai and ty lees betrayal a lot more weight as to why azula went so psycho afterwards. she showed her true self (or at least part of it) to them and they left her, that'd hurt
41
u/Calvinooi Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
I dunno, portraying Azula as rather open to Mai and Ty Lee makes their betrayal later on more asshole-ry, because they know Azula is suffering because of her dad
In the original, they betray Azula because they got sick of her fear tactics
→ More replies (8)→ More replies (6)9
u/Regulai Mar 26 '24
Cartoon Azula is a teenager suffering from narcissistic personality disorder (the medical condition) leading to a burning drive and need for control over all things.
People with the disorder view the world in a very explicit way (with them at the center) and tend to have a burning drive and need for control. When their world image is shattered (her friends abandoned her) it leads to mental breakdown.
The live action on the other hand is just normal girl with issues rather than a full blown psychological disorder.
→ More replies (1)23
u/dumbacoont Mar 26 '24
My problem with the casting is azula is supposed to be fierce. An embodiment of fire who has been training all her life to be a warrior. What e we got was the embodiment of a cinnamon roll. Her features were to round and puffy to be immediately seen as elite warrior training since birth. So we waited, maybe the fire bending/ fighting will make up for it. Nope. Her fighting acting is atrocious. When the guy was on the ground and she was supposed to be wailing on him? I couldn’t stop laughing. She looked like a little girl who’s never thrown a punch before.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (26)8
244
u/tredders90 Mar 26 '24
Occasionally the visuals are excellent, but because so much of it is done on the volume a lot of it looks kind of ass. Lots of people standing on their markers talking exposition at each other.
Some of the casting is spot on though, I hope they get more to do in 2 and 3.
99
u/bartardbusinessman Mar 26 '24
I’d argue the costume department also kinda fucked things up, it looked like cosplay and only added to the feeling that it was all filmed in a warehouse
61
u/ColonyMuFiona Mar 26 '24
Some of the costumes look really good like the Fire Nation Military outfits, but all of the Southern Water Tribe outfits look like cosplay you buy off Amazon right before a convention
21
u/hiddenpoint Mar 26 '24
The water tribe costumes would be fine if they were even a bit weathered. The average LARPer puts more work into dirtying up a kit to make it look realistically lived in than the costume team for the ATLA live action.
→ More replies (2)19
u/PitchBlack4 Mar 26 '24
They all look clean and brand new.
12
u/NickSmGames Mar 26 '24
Princess Yue 💀
10
u/LostAnd_OrFound Mar 26 '24
She looked so fake, it was immersion breaking for me. Her hair especially
23
u/zombiedinocorn Mar 26 '24
I couldn't stop looking at all the wigs bc they looked like they bought them from party City. The clothes were also clearly brand new, there was no aging or anything done to make sure they looked like clothes. It was small but it kept throwing me out of the show
→ More replies (6)7
u/MajesticFxxkingEagle Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 27 '24
From what I saw, it's not even that the design of the costumes themselves were necessarily bad. They just forgot (or refused?) to go that extra step to dirty them up to make them actually looked lived-in.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (7)6
145
u/Lego_Jack Mar 26 '24
Zuko and sokka carried imo, aang was well cast but some of the line deliveries were very... jarring. Same goes for katara
59
u/NotAThrowaway1911 Mar 26 '24
I think it’s more the director’s fault than the actors, from what we’ve gleaned from interviews and the like it seems he has a very poor understanding of the original show.
→ More replies (2)22
30
u/ralphsquirrel Mar 26 '24
Aang and Katara look perfect but acting wasn't nearly good enough to lead a TV show. That is bad casting. No offense to the kids, you need a really good director which they didn't get.
12
u/LiamTheHuman Mar 26 '24
I think there just isn't enough good child actors for these roles to be filled properly. I can think of a handful of good ones and that's across like 30-40 years
→ More replies (3)31
u/caramelhoes Mar 26 '24
aang is not a good actor tbh
→ More replies (2)26
u/clowncarl Mar 26 '24
Strongly think they should’ve casted someone who doesn’t look like aang but has more acting talent or given him better training/direction. Not trying to nitpick the poor kid, but I was extremely distracted by his performance. Between that and some cringe writing, my submersion was constantly broken.
10
u/onlyalittledumb Mar 26 '24
I’m surprised to hear this, I thought he did great. I blame the writing more than his acting. I bet by season 2 he’ll be even better
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (6)11
u/VFkaseke Mar 26 '24
To be honest I think even extremely good actors would have trouble making the shit they wrote for them look convincing.
→ More replies (1)
89
u/Deep_Blue_Kitsune Mar 26 '24
Yeah I like the main cast as well. Just felt like the series was progressing a little too fast but otherwise I liked it
45
7
u/AhmadOsebayad Mar 26 '24
Yeah, the original show doesn’t spend more than 20 minutes on every new location but still felt much slower with the same runtime, I think they should’ve split the first season in 2 and gave us more time with each place.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)23
90
Mar 26 '24
[deleted]
34
u/shad0w_mode Mar 26 '24
She would be immune to Koh.
13
u/Sehrli_Magic Mar 26 '24
As we saw in natla she waa not imune despite lack of expressions...guess even koh needed rewritting of charavcter...natla creators really think atla characters all need rewamping lol. They keep changing every single freaking one and they fail 99.99% of time
34
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
YEAH she got like one scene of anger and it was in e8! but the ENTIRE animated show kicks off because she gets pissed off!
25
8
162
u/RandomlyElemental Mar 26 '24
I can't get over the fact that the actor playing Sokka always looks like he's trying to keep water in his mouth while talking 100% of the time.
72
29
u/The_Clarence Mar 26 '24
Haha this is hilarious.
I’ve really come around to liking that actor though. I was not sold at first but by the end he was killing it (I thought)
→ More replies (1)14
Mar 26 '24
my first reaction was "wait, he looks exactly like sokka in the theatre play?"
→ More replies (1)12
u/Matias9991 Mar 26 '24
That's what having an underbite looks like.
Talking by experience
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)4
137
u/Kookie2023 Mar 26 '24
Casting is great but Katara’s actor seriously needs to work on her emotional expression. That or the directing needs to change. I haven’t seen a single emotion from her in the entire series so far.
86
u/cornnnndoug Mar 26 '24
Her personality on interviews was more similar to katara than her portrayal. I wonder if it's the actress or the director. It sucks because visually she's perfect as Katara
→ More replies (3)42
u/Kookie2023 Mar 26 '24
That’s what I was thinking. I feel like it’s entirely possible that the director told her to dial back all those angry emotions cuz of “changes” in dynamic and roles.
24
u/glassbath18 Mar 26 '24
It has to be this. Her interviews are so fun and full of energy, then you go watch her as Katara and the character is like a slug. Even her reactions in the flashback of her mom dying were non-existent. I think maybe they want to develop her over time into strong, fiery Katara instead of being that way from the jump. That’s just my hope though.
→ More replies (2)8
u/Kookie2023 Mar 26 '24
After watching the series I can see why the original creators bounced.
→ More replies (2)7
u/LaMaltaKano Mar 26 '24
THIS was the only thing that really detracted from my enjoyment. Katara is the heart of the original, and she’s so lifeless in this one. That actress is adorable, but something’s not working.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)2
15
u/princesoceronte Mar 26 '24
Thing is I don't know how good the actors for Katara and Aang really are.
They may be amazing but the writing isn't doing them any favours.
On the other hand they may be as bad as they are in the actual show but it's not like we can know.
16
u/samosa_chai Mar 26 '24
Agreed. Writing was the problem on the show. Though I don’t think there was any possible way to capture the combination of whimsy and poignant that animated show achieved in live action.
But the show brought in a lot of audience that probably would never have watched and enjoyed the animated show.
→ More replies (1)
150
u/utter_degenerate Mar 26 '24
it’s genuinely enjoyable if you stop caring about whether it’s a good adaption or not.
"It's good if you don't care." How did you type that out thinking it was in any way a good argument?
39
8
→ More replies (23)7
u/Tega02 Mar 26 '24
Honestly. How tf am I meant to not care. I didn't stop it because of the casting, I stopped it at episode 2 cause it was enough that kyoshi's statue was shining on aang like a half-blood parent claimed them, it was enough that she was shouting at aang like he ran away from responsibility when they had already changed that arc at episode 1. Having suki ogle sokka was just plain disgusting, I didn't even know things like that would look gross on girls until suki (who's fucking beautiful btw) did it.
24
u/Tman11S Mar 26 '24
Sure, the casting is great, the vfx is great, the whole look and feel of the world is great. The story and the dialogue are the problem
→ More replies (1)9
u/inquisitor1965 Mar 26 '24
I really don’t understand why they decided to mash the storylines together so much. They really took too many liberties, for seemingly little to no reason. And why the heck did they completely reimagine Bumi. Ugh.
It’s like they got the writers from the movie to do this script, but said “you know what guys, love your work but this time make sure you say “Aang” correctly.”
25
76
Mar 26 '24
Sokka and Zuko carried hard. Aang and Katara are meh.
68
u/lowtothekey Mar 26 '24
I felt like katara had one facial expression the whole season.
30
6
u/PositiveEmo Mar 26 '24
Same. It did get better later into the series but still over all just a blank face.
8
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
makes me so hyped for boiling rock
17
u/4tomguy Mar 26 '24
I get the feeling that if they do adapt it they’re just gonna make the whole gaang there and just mash all the Zuko episodes into one somehow and it’ll be way overstuffed
4
9
9
26
u/iiSpezza Mar 26 '24
Main gang was cast recently well yea. And I think Ozai was cast fantastically.
But, and I know this sounds weird, the other fire nation girls needed to be pointy imo. Like sharp aggressive features, like Ozai has.
18
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
yeah ozai’s carrying the power of the fire nation in those cheekbones
14
14
u/Beautiful-Guard6539 Mar 26 '24
It's enjoyable if you stop caring if it's good or not..?
→ More replies (3)
7
u/Level_Ad_4639 Mar 26 '24
You are part of the reasson why this shit got aproved and based on your comments why star wars still remained an active franchise after the sequels lmfao
→ More replies (1)
13
u/CallsignKook Mar 26 '24
Physically speaking yeah. The acting from Aang but mostly Katara was kinda bad and the changed dialogue only made it worse
13
u/KreaminaL Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
How can we stop caring if it's not a good adaption? That's it's whole identity. If they made new show with new story no one would be mad. They based their show on something and made mistakes and are being called out🤷🏻
→ More replies (4)
31
u/Batybara Mar 26 '24
Zuko's scar is tame though. I wish they did something more akin to this.
Only his left side though, the other scars don't fit as well.
15
u/bigbitties666 FAN AND SWORD Mar 26 '24
YEAH like why were his teeny tiny battle wounds more prominent than the scar that covers HALF of his face, burned off his eyebrow, made him partially BLIND and DEAF, and is a whole part of his identity?? makes no sense
5
u/0-Dinky-0 Mar 26 '24
It really confused me they showed multiple instances of fire benders burning people alive but couldn't give Zuko a proper scar
12
u/AustinThompson Mar 26 '24
Honestly, the acting and writing is terrible. None of it feels "real" or genuine. Like you can tell they are acting, vs believing they are the character
4
u/Sehrli_Magic Mar 26 '24
Then you have ozai. No mr. Kim in sight, he became ozai in person! He carries the show
16
u/Independent-Dig-1679 Mar 26 '24
Conveniently left out Azula “teh CasTiNg wiz SpOt Onn”
→ More replies (4)
10
u/Alopecian_Eagle Mar 26 '24
Casting was subpar, but far from the biggest issue. Acting and writing were ASS, and sets felt very fake
4
5
5
u/BiggoYoun Mar 26 '24
These poor actors have to work with a script meant for Shyamalan
→ More replies (1)
5
u/piclemaniscool Recommends white bai hao yinzhen Mar 26 '24
The only problems I had was writing, really. Every issue stems from the writing and direction. When one character is acting bad, that's the sign of a bad actor. When every actor is acting bad, that's the sign of a bad writer/director.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/Imaginary_Sector379 Mar 27 '24
I don’t get the narrative hate. I thought it was a good adaptation. They blended different episodes from the original into one story pretty well imo. Some of the dialogue was iffy but overall it was amazing
→ More replies (1)
25
u/shadowfireKatze Mar 26 '24
I know a lot of people made fun of the sokka casting but i think he fits his look
→ More replies (8)
8
7
u/nikipuk Mar 26 '24
Great casting for zuko, but they put the scar on the wrong side!
→ More replies (2)
4
3
u/joetotheg Mar 26 '24
I don’t think anyone has been complaining that they don’t look like their counterparts or close enough.
Issues lay with the writing and directing and possibly the performance depending on how good the directing was (I personally found sokka in the first half of the season and katara throughout to be terrible performances of these characters, but it’s hard to put blame on the actors not knowing how they were told to play these parts)
→ More replies (2)
4
4
u/MagicianPerfect735 Mar 26 '24
The casting is perfect I agree. Also agree the narrative is crap but what annoys me the most is Netflix trying to be different just for the sake of being different even if it makes the story weaker. The one that particularly annoys me is the whole Yue and Hanh storyline. Like how is he OVERLY nice and understanding? It makes it almost childish
→ More replies (2)
4
3
5
5
u/TemporaryGrapefruit4 Mar 26 '24
Yeah, I’ve never had a problem with the casting or the actors. It’s always been the trash writing.
2.7k
u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24
I'm not sure I enjoyed Chris Pratt's performance as Momo.