Netflix Avatar Live-Action - Reaction

so far at least lol

E1 - Aang

earthbending is really slow LOL the dust rises slowly
EW spelling out the avatar cycle and why Sozin went after the Air Nomads in narration exposition in the second scene
- Gyatso later explains all this to Aang anyways — maybe a production desync
don’t like that Aang flies without his glider
air nation costumes and set look neat
talking of the nations as “the earthbenders” — the nations and military are much more than just the benders!
nice seeing Gyatso and Aang genuinely being close
- Aang needs a character moment to justify his “i dont want to be special” — in the animation, we see how he just penguin slides with Katara, wanting to have fun as a kid.
- He talks with Appa — “I eat cakes and play airball.”, “The other kids say I’m lucky for my power”, “I don’t want to leave, I don’t want the power”, “I’m scared”
- a lot of telling who Aang is, when in the animation, his adventures with Katara show us who he is
oh I don’t like how every regular soldier can fire jetpack — that’s a Fire Royalty exclusive
airbending fights look smooth and clean and clear — despite being “invisible”
fire bending with lion roaring sound effects are cool
it wasn’t too clear that there was the Great Comet — we had to be reminded of it, we could’ve had more visuals
sokka and katara on the canoe, sokka being annoying (in character) but not funny, the original events were tighter and funny
- “you should’ve been helping around the village instead of waterbending”
- could’ve been a sexist moment, “like taking care of the children”
Aang comes out of the iceberg standing — did he? I thought he was sitting in a lotus position meditating
Sokka just tossing the coat on Aang’s unconscious body LOL
yeah just a lot of “this is an airbender” and not just “air nomad”
Zuko’s voice hits sometimes
- Iroh”: “sometimes its worth to consider maybe the throne isn’t worth it”
- Zuko: “the throne is my destiny”
Sokka and Katara are just hilariously huge among the other wolf cove kids — they’re supposed to be kids too. There’s no other young adults in the cove, so the siblings look like they are
oh Gran-Gran actually eventually says the intro thing
- but it misses the weight of Katara being the one to say it, “but I believe he can save us.”
ermmm acktually, the last time the Great Comet was seen in the sky was not 100 years ago — it was 98 years ago LOL but yea I get it’, it’s estimation
Aang and Katara’s expressions of their homes’ genocides are so expressionless lol, they needed more anguish
- Aang took it all in so fast, instead of the whole episode dedicated to his escapism
the fire nation ship is so closeby the village!
ah the fire nation ship just arrives, instead of Aang and Katara setting off flares
it doesn’t seem like common knowledge or hoping where everyone’s waiting for the Avatar to fight back the Fire Nation
Sokka is taller than the Fire Nation soldiers lol
- he’s not a tiny boy admiring his soldier manly dad — it does take away the punch
Zuko vs Sokka, he used his firebending — Zuko should’ve just taken him down without fire, he’s a good combatant
We’re missing Zuko vs Aang’s 1v1!!
- but it’s cool that once Aang steps up, the Water Tribe kids throw stones
ah Iroh’s holding cell convo with Aang, it’s already so clear which side he’s on
- probably not a necessary convo for screentime
Aang so quickly escapes from Zuko even without talking with him. There was a lot of good intro convo there. I think it was a cut scene, since Zuko immediately comes out and says “stop him!” like he already knew
Aang falling without his glider isn’t that tense, cause we already saw him flying without his glider in the opening
Zuko launches the fireball at Appa without Iroh’s help??? We need to see Iroh sort of working against them
Gyatso being the one to calm Aang from Avatar State Anger instead of Katara, Katara not the major influence anymore
- yeah maybe this strength is actually a weakness? because we spend too much time in the past but not with the present characters
they write it like a drama instead of a kids animation — maybe since it’s so fast-paced, there’s no time for light downtime and character moments

I think the Netflix series did not benefit from showing the Air Nomad genocide right away in E1.

Katara and Sokka introduced far too late for main characters
Too much worldbuilding/cultures to take in right away
Too much unwarranted detail and time spent in the past, without any payoff in the present

looks cool tho. ig it’s a nice garnish. doesn’t work as an appetiser / the story hook. Could’ve been slipped in towards the end of the episode instead in flashbacks.

E2 - Warriors

ah she gets the waterbending scroll from Gran-Gran instead of stealing from pirates LOL
market scene, Uncle Iroh being goofball
- most importantly you need to have… sticky rice!
- yeah that’s Uncle Iroh writing that we needed in his first scene, not his second
“there would’ve been signs”
- SIGN
true that kids are grown up too soon after the war, but the animation had a lot of goofing around — perhaps the kids are way too mature?
Admiral Zhao greets Zuko, but no greeting nor reverence for Iroh?
- yeah we also just don’t see Zuko defer authority to Iroh, nor Iroh’s combat mentoring.
- so Zhao’s taunt of knowing Iroh’s true military title, that subtext hasn’t really been set up?
Suki walking in on Sokka ripped and topless? he has this whole arc where he learns about what it means to be a “man”, though still a young boy
so much talk about Gyatso, I don’t know how I feel about it actually. It’s supposed to fuel Aang’s roots in Air Nomad culture. idk if it helps or not
YAY Aang and Katara splashing water, could use more downtime like that
yay they recreated the air scooter knocking into the statue scene
why Suki so yandere, like she’s got a point to make — well at least originally, she knew best what it means to be a warrior AND a girl, while Sokka does not understand gender roles
- she initiates the sparring with Sokka — but it’s Sokka’s whole thing to be arrogant
Aang revealing he was excluded when he was young, but we didn’t get that scene from the animation where the kids didn’t pick him because it would be unfair
- yeah and the whole training-instead-of-playing.
- in the animation, there’s just a lot more time between his revelation of being Avatar, for his newfound treatment from his society, before his departure
- in the movie, he’s excluded for being a mere prodigy. but being excluded for being THE AVATAR has a whole lot more specificity to it
yeah the Sokka and Suki arc loses its punch and dynamic without the sexism and gender roles, now it’s just two attractive teenagers of age doing a meet cute
- Suki’s entire thing is leaving the island??
nahhhh Suki taking off her makeup and all right away? she comes back later and the gang don’t recognise her
- lol Suki without makeup so we see her live-action actor face
THEY WANNA KISS after just 48 hours? they could’ve given them more time lol, even just for development
- so they do kiss. ah puppy love
- kinda sucks that they made this clearly endgame already, so the whole Princess Yue arc with Sokka later has way less weight
- yeah they do a tame cheek kiss in the animation, not a full-on mouth one. they’re so old-teenagers
Kyoshi makes a good point, running away means you hurt more people
Kyoshi coming in with last-episode-Aang vibes was actually cool. Going full out.
- Good call to merge Roku’s appearance at the Fire Temple in the animation to be here, and have Kyoshi show up here instead
- though idk what this means for Roku’s prominence as Aang’s primary avatar mentor, which enforced the Roku-Sozin / Aang-Zuko parallel
ah Zhao attacking the village instead of Zuko, so no more “uh you burnt down my village” “oh sorry about that” in the prison break episode, sadge
“We gotta get there before the firebenders catch up to us” — yeah see, it’s the entire “Fire Nation”, not just the firebenders.