Avatar: TLA is a Deeply Flawed Adaptation

Long ago all four nations lived in peace, but everything changed when the Exposition attacked

Nobody talks about how if they would’ve just kept Azula out of the first book like they were supposed to they’d have a little bit more screen time to flush a lot of other stuff out rather than it be so rushed

You know it was going to be a huge problem when they said they wanted it to appeal to Game of Thrones fans

They cut out all the bits that show these characters have flaws. Aang doesn't run away, he doesn't keep Sokkas dad letter from him, he doesn't burn Katara due to his impatiance with fire bending... Katara doesn't get jealous of aang, doesn't endanger the group by stealing the scroll, doesn't need Paku's help to improve waterbending..

I've been disappointed far too often by things that "have some good points" or "have great potential in the next seasons" at this point. This feels like just another cash grab, and I'm not sure they earned the benefit of the doubt

Bumi and Kyoshi's anger towards Aang for running away is made even weirder by the fact that Aang didn't run away like he did in the original. He was planning on coming back. Netflix wanted to make Aang more likeable by removing any character flaws (like they did with Sokka) yet they doubled down on making him less likeable. I totally sympathized with 12-yr-old Aang in the original, but this adaptation made him less human.

Cartoon Azula looks like she's gonna kill you. LA Azula looks like she's gonna post some mean things about you on the internet

The writers forgot that book 1 is called Water.

So confusing why they didn’t let aang water bend. Wasn’t that one of the main parts of season 1. It’s literally called book 1 water

they tried to serialize the series too hard. The random adventures and the length of the animated series is what made it memorable

One of my main gripes was how they took Aang and Roku's shine away multiple times. The best example is easily EP2 where they gave it to Kyoshi. ATLA isn't Aang's story. It's Roku's. It's Aang fixing Roku's mistakes. That's basically what the opening of Book 3 tells us when Roku outright apologizes to Aang for having put this burden on him. Aang is fighting Roku's war when he doesn't want to. And one of the first big steps Aang takes towards maturity and becoming the Avatar the world that Roku left needs is the Kyoshi Island episode. At first he's just bathing in the validation he receives. He came there for a selfish reason (riding giant koi fish), convinces the Island he's the Avatar, and then lets it go to his head and starts goofing around when they start worshipping him. It's only when the Fire Nation attacks that he matures and draws the Fire Nation away. And even that isn't enough for him. He looks back in sorrow when he sees the village in flames knowing he indirectly caused it, and that's what causes him to risk his own life to coerce the Unagi to douse the fire. The Unagi was almost like a metaphor for that episode. At first it represents Aang's immaturity. He endangers himself by clowning around with it purely to try and impress a few village girls and Katara. But in the finale of the episode, he endangers himself in order to use the Unagi for the greater good. It was a shift in mindset. The Unagi is simply a beast, like a force of nature that will do what it will do. But Aang's approach to it was different in the beginning than it was in the end. At first he risks his life for selfish fun. But by the end, he risks it to save an entire town. It's metaphor, even if unintentional, for basically the entire show. Aang went from a kid doing dangerous things for fun, for himself, to The Avatar who did dangerous things to save the world. All of that nuance is set in a 20 minute episode of a ''kids'' show. Meanwhile this hour long ''mature'' TV series wherein people get lit on fire in surprisingly graphic detail, tosses it out the window and has Kyoshi go ''Lol you really messed up coming here, now lemme show you how a true girlboss fixes things!'' before she just fixes all of Aang's problems, thus keeping him from having to mature and robbing him of the biggest first step of his journey. Thanks, Netflix. I hate it.

It's pretty cool that netflix made an adaptation of the ember island players.

So— I get that the show is trying to give us an insecure “little-sister” kind of Katara to show some growth and self-confidence as her bending ability progresses… but I think the Netflix showrunners missed the point on why Katara is so iconic. In the cartoon… Katara was brave, compassionate, diplomatic, shamelessly vocal about what she believed in, and unbelievably resourceful alongside her bending abilities, rather than because of them. This was a girl who set the ATLA story into motion after vocally putting her brothers small-minded sexism in its place, and had an iceberg not been discovered, I like to believe fed-up Katara would’ve packed her bags and left home (since she’s GranGran’s granddaughter after all) and canoed her way to the NWT with to finally find a waterbending master and help end this war. Instead… all I’m seeing is the gentle, nurturing soul that Katara only chose to be from the trauma of losing her mom, and the 🥺 faces are kind of redundant. She needs a stronger presence in this series.

I mostly agree with all your criticism. However, I strongly disagree with the statement that Zuko and Iroh were perfectly portrayed. Zuko lacks his rage and quick temper which stems from his insecurities and shame given to him by his father. In the live-action remake, Zuko seems way too calm and respectful to the people surrounding him, especially Iroh, which is a major issue in the relationship between them. In the animated show, Zuko constantly disrespects Iroh for every interference and piece of advice Iroh shares with him. This ultimately leads to Zuko's ultimate regret after he betrays him and later realizes Iroh is the only family member who truly loves and cares for him. Iroh's portrayal also didn't feel right to me. At first, I wasn't sure exactly what was off. Then I realized what I found to be missing. Iroh, in the original animated show, actually seems quite passive as a character. He doesn't seem to do much within the first season besides sharing advice and wisdom with Zuko. However, throughout the first season, it quickly becomes noticeable that Iroh holds much wisdom. More so than first meets the eye. This results in mystery, surrounding the character. Iroh also uses anecdotes and metaphors throughout his dialogues and always, no matter what the situation, remains calm and composed. The Iroh in the remake is far too emotional and expressive at times, destroying the nuance and mystery of the character in its entirety! So, to me, these characters were portrayed very inaccurately and it's even more frustrating considering that if the actors portraying these characters had a better script to work with, they probably could've done a fantastic job.

My main problem is that it doesn’t even feel like an actual show. It feels like some highschool play. The acting is just terrible. Also why are the costumes so clean and perfect looking? Just breaks the immersion and make it look like a cosplay. I can’t take any of it serious. There’s no character development it’s all just long expositions and explanations every 5 seconds.

The problem with this show is they fix problems that weren’t actually problems like Sokka’s sexism, which they eliminate, but there’s a whole arc about him being humbled and learning he isn’t that guy. It would be one thing if he didn’t change his perspective in the original show over time, and another if his sexism received a positive response from other characters, but it is constantly challenged throughout the show and is a huge character growth arc, not only for him but for katara. He starts out as an immature boy and grows as a person as he meets incredible, capable women in the show like suki. His sexism is also a huge catalyst to the plot. They literally never would have met aang if he hadn’t made katara upset. It could have been an awesome opportunity to make sokka a role model for how he humbles himself and changes his perspective as he learns his sexist beliefs are wrong- something our hard-headed political atmosphere really needed to see. Missed opportunity there.

Azula's face is too round and soft. In the anime she had very sharp features and looked more mature yet still young.

There’s a reason why the original creators parted ways with this adaptation citing “creative differences” smh

Started watching the first episode and left halfway since all it made me want to do is switch to the original. I’ll never understand why they keep trying to adapt an already perfect story.

The writers team and the directors dropped the ball HARD on this one. Every department, from set design and art direction, to hair and makeup, to wardrobe, to the stunt coordinators and the overworked VFX teams seem to have put their hearts and souls into this series, and the actors (while a bit wooden and overall uneven) seemed really passionate as well and would only have improved over time.. But all of that means nothing when the writers create a checklist of moments and things they want to adapt and honor and accomplish, but fail to grasp the essence of what made these characters so refreshing and captivating, or what made the story so compelling. And no; no one wanted a 1:1 adaptation. Consumers need to stop parroting this shallow sentiment as some defense when no one in their right minds would ever expect or want a shot for shot remake. For every change they made that was good (like Zuko’s crew being the very soldiers he defended, or all the Airbenders traveling to the south for the comet festival and thus being easy pickings), they make two that are unnecessary, superfluous, or downright detrimental to the narrative, themes, and characters. This was just like the Ember Island play. Neat effects, some funny moments, a loosely “accurate” just of the timeline, middling acting, and awful writing. But, y’know, “At least the effects were decent.”