Earth, water, fire, air. The four nations lived in harmony, until Netflix attacked. Avatar: The Last Airbender, the live action version, was released on February 22nd with eight total episodes. All eight episodes run for a little under an hour, and in the seven-ish hours it took me to watch ATLA: LA, it felt like the siege on Ba Sing Se just to get through it.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the story of a young airbender named Aang who is the next Avatar in the never-ending cycle, trapped in ice for 100 years while the Fire Nation attempts to overtake the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom. Waterbender Katara and her brother Sokka discover him frozen and after freeing him, follow him on his journey to become a master of all four elements and save the known world before Sozin’s Comet shoots through the sky and gives the Fire Nation the strength to completely take over.
The live action was directed by Bonnie Benwick and Joshua Fialkov, both known for under-the-radar movies. In August of 2020, both original writers of ATLA Bryan Koneitzko and Micheal Dante DiMartino announced that they would no longer be on board with the Netflix live action because of creative differences.
I can definitely see those creative differences. The plot moves a lot faster and so much slower than the original show all at once, as Aang never once waterbends in the entirety of the first season unless he’s in the Avatar State, even though the river scene with Katara where the two of them waterbend together is included, minus Aang actually learning to become the Avatar.
“Secret Tunnel” also makes an appearance, but not how we’d hoped. Instead of Aang and Katara exploring the tunnel to get into Omashu initially, all four of them are inside the Omashu walls. Sokka and Katara are in the secret tunnels instead of Aang and Katara, which I felt was toeing the line a little bit.
While Sokka and Katara are deep in the tunnels, (even though they’re already inside the city walls?), Aang is having it out with King Bumi in the castle, no challenges, just him and Bumi brawling.
In the original Nickelodeon show, the Gaang meet King Bumi in book one episode five. This timeline does not match up all the way to the end of the show, because the Sozin’s Comet plotline isn’t real. The comet’s plot line was cut because of timing issues and unsurety that the show would be renewed for a second season.
From a purely technical, I-grew-up-under-a-rock standpoint, the ATLA live action is surprisingly good after the massive crash and burn of its predecessor, 2010’s “The Last Avatar.” The relationships hold up under the tenuous situations, though Katara and Sokka’s relationship is rocky even with the lack of Sokka’s misogyny, and the action scenes are fun, fast, and fluid.
Sokka, in my opinion, was done the dirtiest of all. His character arc was erased entirely, and his time on Kyoshi Island wasn’t used to make him into the better, woman-respecting person that he is at the end of the series, but is instead used to introduce Suki as his love interest, and it gave her little to no dimension except to be there to teach Sokka hand-to-hand combat.
Also, he’s never put into Kyoshi make-up to properly immerse him in their techniques.
He’s still implied to be sexist without ever saying it, telling Katara to stay behind and to keep her bending abilities hidden, but not being shown and told that Sokka doesn’t think women can fend for themselves made him unlikeable and just like every other crypto-bro. Even though this is the first season, I can already tell he lost the self-doubt that made him the loveable blue-coded character that he was. Instead, he’s become hard-headed and a character I didn’t enjoy seeing on my screen.
Ignoring the original plotline, the story is pretty good too. The group have a clear goal in mind, even with all the hang ups at Kyoshi Island and Zuko getting in their way to try and fail at capturing a recently-defrosted teenage boy that’s more useful as a blow dryer than an Avatar. Speaking of Zuko, he is a victim of the sassy man epidemic, and I love that he has a lot of personality in the live action this early in the show, even with the bad ponytail-shaved head look he had going on.
One thing that was missing from Zuko’s character was his constant reasoning of “for his honor.” Ozai still banishes Zuko after the Agni Kai, but not once do we actually hear Zuko state that he’s looking for the Avatar to “restore his honor.” In fact, his lost honor as the Fire Lord’s first born son is never talked about at all.
Iroh was perfect. He’s old, he’s wise. Pai Sho, tea, and good food are his three loves in life, and he serves as a guide to Zuko while still irritating him, as is his given right as his uncle. Iroh was still plagued by his time as the “Dragon of the West,” and if given a second season, I can see where they’ve set up the full arc to play out.
As a long-time fan of ATLA, the live action wasn’t my favorite adaptation. I prefer the comic series released during and after the end of the show, but compared to “The Last Avatar,” it’s definitely watchable. Maybe not more than once, but it’s not a complete trainwreck. I really did love the references to the original show like the cabbage seller, and the tapestry in the Southern Water tribe read by Gran Gran to give us the iconic lines.
Older fans that have seen the series front to back will probably find the same issues that I did, but newer fans that are coming in after the release of the live action will definitely enjoy it, and then abandon it after they pick up the animated show and realize that wow! This show isn’t hot garbage! I love ATLA. I really do. I do wish that Netflix had stayed a little closer to the source material, and kept Sokka just how he was, but the live action ATLA is worth it to see.
