Avatar the Last Airbender

There are many things flying around the internet about Netflix’s live action Avatar the Last Airbender series. Fans of the original animated series have been holding out cautious hope for a while now and we have expectations. This is one of the most definitively perfect shows of all time and the choice to turn it into a live action after the execution of the film was a bold one. The series releases on the 22nd and fans are already pointing out the horrendous choices that the creatives have made. Perhaps the first mistake is the creatives opening their mouths about the unnecessary changes that they have decided to make. Perhaps the problem was choosing to make the series in the first place, either way we have things that NEED to happen in this show. Without them the show will fail and the fans will do everything in their power to make sure that it never gets a chance at a second season.

Diverse Casting

Look I really shouldn’t have to say this but there are no white people in Avatar the Last Airbender. It’s really, very clear in the animated series that each element is based off of different Asian nationalities. For the most part the casting seems fine except for one obvious bad decision, Sokka. Ian Ousley the man cast to play Sokka LIED about being Cherokee (problem number 1 was casting just any indigenous person they could find) and after that information was released the production chose to keep him instead of recasting. It's also very clear that he is just a tan white boy, he is abusing the system and his ethnic ambiguity and it's gross. This was production misstep #1.

Character Arcs

The character growth and development in the animated series is impeccable. It is one of the many things that makes the show so impactful and incredible. And yet one of the things that the production team has announced is that they are getting rid of the fact that at the beginning of the series Sokka is incredibly sexist. Yet that is literally the beginning of his incredible character arc. His encounters with the Warriors of Kioshi, his standing up for Katara when they reach the northern water tribe. These moments are completely devoid of meaning without Sokka’s immature sexism. It's also the reason they end up finding Aang so they have already made major changes that do nothing but weaken the writing and take away from not only the character arcs but also from the overall meaning of the show.

1 Specialty Per Season

I have a remarkably strong feeling that the pacing of this new show is going to suck so hard. They have already said that they plan on dragging out the series by getting rid of the Comet deadline. Which on its own is a terrible idea but one of the reasons that the animated show worked so well is the pacing. The fact that Aang had to learn how to master all of the elements before the comet and that translated into learning one element per “book” or season is why it worked so well.

My honest gut feeling is that the live action series is not going to be any better than the live action movie. I want to have hope but we really need to stop messing with perfection. And the animated series is, perfection. There is no reason to remake it and there is most definitely no reason to change it. Avatar the Last Airbender has exactly 1 chance to convince the audience that it isn’t a money grab. And it has to prove itself to a very unforgiving audience.