Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender | Analysis of a Failure
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- čas přidán 2. 04. 2024
- I recently watched the new Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I had a lot of thoughts. Here are the most significant ones. I could have added another 30 minutes to this video but I wanted to get something out in a reasonable time frame.
Music:
Lau Tzu Ehru - Doug Maxwell
All The Tea In China - Shane Ivers Chinese Music
Awake - Sappheiros
Bike Sharing to Paradise - Dan Bodan
Ceremonial Dance - Darren Curtis
Cooking - Alex Productions
Path of the Fireflies - Aerohead
Swing Rabbit! Swing! - Amira
Lazy Dally - Redafs
Lost Memories - Aerohead
Rainy Days - Joakim Karud
Summer in the Neighbourhood - Bad Snacks
All tracks used with credit in accordance with requirements for use. If I have missed anything please contact me. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
I told everyone exactly this. I said "Wait until it gets released, and then another 2 or 3 months later for hour long video essays explaining why it failed". I called exactly these scenarios.
Only took me a month and a half!
Those essays are trash and lies! This show was well loved by newcomers to the franchise and it has a 74% audience score on RT and 7.2/10 on IMDB. Also most people outside of YT actually loved this adaptation and the people who hate it never saw the original or just wanted a 1 by one adaption. These videos are CLICKBAIT! And lies! I hope everyone who hates this show gets thepary
@@Loganrock305 Lol. Lmao even.
@@DysnomiaFilms it’s not a failure!
I had never watched the original but as a regular movie/series lover, i got sooooo pissed soooo many times while watching the netflix version. I had nothing to compare it to but the netflix series was so confusing and unconvincing. Omg the exposition was killing me, the acting was whatever. The last episode where zuko confronts zhao, Iroh just stands and disappears in the background, like wtf 😂. But i did like zuko and Iroh here.
This series annoyed me so much that i had to watch the original and omg, its so good. This is my third time watching it in 2 months 😂.
After watching the original, i hate the netflix series even more. I have do many complaints but can’t type it all.
Anyways great video.
Ive seen a couple of other reviews for this show and i know we only have the first season to compare it to, but there were just so many choices that are "changes for changes sake" i really like that point. My worst offender is Aang's direct refusal to learn waterbending from Katara because "Gyatso was my mentor". I understand Aang is supposed to be young, but he grows up fast in this war because he has to and that was such a slap in the face to his ideals that the OG show empowers even in season one where he screws around most of the season.
I wouldn't even mind this part if the rest of the season involved an arc of Aang learning to accept that he needs to learn bending from a new mentor, but it just never happens and is ignored until they get to the north pole, at which point it is mentioned but never explored.
this is an extremely well made video that I completely agree with but I'm too tired right now to explain how good it is cause it would take too long to type out
Thank you! Hope you get some rest!
0:36
I kinda have to argue that there's just one major flaw with this reasoning about the change in Aang's character. In the original show, he was a 12 to 13-year-old. When we finally get to see an adult version of him in Korra, he's in his forties and already has kids. With this in mind, we have to remember how that's quite a lot of time for MANY things to happen in one's life. We don't know all of what Aang's been through as he matured and got older. Plus, a lot people's personalities, especially when it comes to how they handle certain situations, can be very different between their 12-year-old self and their 40-year-old self.
Then, add on the fact that Aang is the last of his people and therefore feels it's his duty to rebuild it. I'm not saying that he didn't want kids. But rather, I'm saying that with that sense of obligation added onto having kids, it would've very likely had the potential to make Aang accidentally take more priority over any airbending offspring he had than the others. In general, he might have been a loving father but simultaneously struggled to do so while also juggling his duty to his lost nation.
Also, there's the fact that the Air Nomads didn't exactly live by the usual concept of family dynamics. Aang wasn't raised by his parents but by his mentor Gyatso, despite them possibly still having been alive. With this in mind, adjusting to more traditional family dynamics could have also been something he had to learn to wrap his head around.
Just some food for thought.
Although I disagree with them, I appreciate the arguments on Aang's character. However, I feel that the "People change" answer is a copout from actual storytelling, where you can make any character change to anything just by adding a timeskip. That's tell, not show, and it feels like a character betrayal because we do not experience what motivates the character to change their core aspects.
@@DysnomiaFilms That's understandable. But I think in order to actually show it and not just tell it, that in itself would require an entire series of its own. And with how Nickelodeon was at the time, doing such a thing would be incredibly difficult, especially alongside the production of Korra.
And besides, with Avatar Studio doing its own thing these days, we might have a better chance of that happening without the influence of networks like Nickelodeon or Netflix. All we can do is hope and wait.
(Plus, it kinda weirds me out a bit to hear people say they're mad that a 40-year-old Aang isn't exactly like his 12-year-old self. I feel like if people took a moment to actually think about that, they'd probably see how strange that sounds like I did. I mean, wouldn't you be weirded out by seeing a grown, approximately middle-aged man acting just like a 12-year-old too?)
@@resdent2922 I'm not saying he should act like his 12 year old self. I just think Aang's attachment to the people he loves is one of, if not his strongest, core characteristic, which makes him being neglectful a dramatic character change. This is the guy who's love for Appa dominated over his quest for most of the 2nd half of book 2, and who repeatedly chose earthly attachment over spiritual ascendance.
@@DysnomiaFilms True, but these are also people/animals he has no blood relation to, and therefore it makes it easier to work with in terms of traditional vs nontraditional family dynamics. Yes, he has a very caring heart, but he also is very tied into the teachings of the monks and how they did things. We see that a number of times throughout the show. We also see that despite his care for his friends, he can still make mistakes with them. Burning Katara, neglecting her at Kyoshi Island, insulting/blaming his friends in the desert, etc.. Yes, he eventually learned his lesson from those incidents, but only after it was done the hard way in most cases.
Plus, Appa technically might not be the best example for you to use because he is still from the same culture as Aang, that being the Air Nomads. And as I said before about him applying his lessons from the monks in most if not everything he does, it shows how much Aang's already ingrained with that culture and values it over certain things. He turns to it as much as he can in order to know how to handle different situations even if it might not be realistic. The way he defeats the Firelord is the biggest example of that. (We even see him get a bit violent for a moment at the construction site in the Northern Air Temple in Book 1 as well, due to the destruction of his people's history.)
Now imagine an Aang who is older, more world weary from his avatar duties, is made to conform to social/family dynamics that he's not used to once becoming a parent, and is still struggling to rebuild his lost nation (especially when all of his acolytes are nonbenders). And this isn't even going into how any of his friends' own life decisions might also potentially affect him as they get older.
I'm not saying you're assessment is wrong. I'm just showing that the way Aang is portrayed in Korra has always been more of a possibility than a lot of people would like to acknowledge. At least it's one that makes more sense than turning him into a complete jerk who doesn't have any of his good traits whatsoever anymore in order to cause unnecessary drama.
See, they did make Avatar meets Game of Thrones. They just failed to mention that it was Avatar meets Season 8 Game of Thrones. It will appeal to the many fans of Season 8 of Game of Thrones.
Lol
Wow Im surprised this is a small channel lol,very high quality
Thank you! The CZcams game isn't easy! If you enjoyed this please do check out some of my other videos on film and TV ♥️
Are you really J.R.R Tolkien?
@@christianbell8347 Yes, I faked my death 50 years ago. I am 132 years old.
I think a very disappointing issue is that they’re giving the antagonists depth, which is meant to be a good thing! But when you give unnecessary character traits to characters like Azula and Ozai who are well known and liked *Because* of how stone cold they are, what you’re really doing is dumbing down the character even further.
Azula for example, stood out in the original for how different she was to the other threats Team Avatar faced. Her character in season 2 was so complex and clever, despite the only thing revealed about her was that she was a troublemaker and favoured by her father as a child. The reason this worked so well was because her whole character wasn’t revealed within one episode. What the Live Action did was give us all her insecurities in one episode. Her saying “being the best isn’t good enough” to herself has already told us that she isn’t confident in herself, which is quite literally the biggest part of her character.
The constant notion of wanting to deepen straightforward characters is going to kill the entire show if not fixed in season 2
Lol sorry for the random one piece Live action defense below but I love anime and didn’t know anything about one piece before watching the live action and it is what got me into the anime… but is your critique of one piece live action that the characters should have acted more like anime characters and they should have tried more fantastical fights (that would probably require more CGI)? Real people acting like anime characters is pretty cringe imo and would have drove off the wider audience that the live action brought in. Adapting does not mean 1 to 1. There are things in anime that just don’t work in live action for example, Sanji’s simping. Annoying but tolerable in the anime but would be way too cringe in live action. Certain aspects of characters and fight scenes need to change or be toned down when adapting from anime to live action imo
Find the energy feel the balance when you find the balance feel the energy around you in order to balance the energy
30:46 Zuko does refuse to fight his father twice, before being forced to engage. His hesitation to deliver the final blow gives us an insight of what his character could be, at least in my opinion
Dude seriously putting those 2 writters in a pedestal? Yet their own creations after are nowhere near atla. Something this near perfect is lighting in a bottle and a collaboration of a lot of minds that will never be replicated but the og creators are the still the ones that got it off the ground and pitched to everyone and nick gave them the chance. Hopefully, they have been humbled after all this time and dont hire yes men only. Oh, and like another commenter said ty for saving me 30 minutes.
It's such a small part of my video man. I find the evidence that they contributed more to making the show what it was than Mike and Bryan compelling. Am I tied to it? No. But they really showed with Korra that they don't understand the lore, character, and thematic throughline of their own franchise it, or if they do, they've changed their minds and don't care about it.
38:02 In the original, Roku does exactly what was done in the live action when he destroyed the fire temple on Crescent island
The exposition bits almost killed me 😂😂
I don’t think they were tying to be different just to be different with live action ATLA. Based on what I heard from the creators they were trying to change the story to be more like game of thrones which is actually insane when you look at the OG story and what made it good
When you look at a lot of the changes through that lens it makes more sense but it’s even more infuriating
The other changes are just bad writing I think
I don't really see how that makes any of the decisions make more sense. The show wasn't really any more like Game of Thrones than the cartoon was.
@@DysnomiaFilms sure it was, the fact they kept going to the fire nation with Ozai and Azula is a good example. And the tonal shifts like the taking things more seriously in general and showing the genocide/Gyatso’s death
We need a avater the last airbender rpg .
There is one!
@@dakotawillard803 there is ?
@@Snowkid20 yes! Its called avatar legends made by magpie games
I just realized at 18:46, why do they need to pour the water to the wound when they can just bend it lol
Lol
There are lots of things I want to say in agreement with you. Buuut my hands are full. So for now ill just say
Im fine with some form of... "Female empowerment"
BUT NOT HERE. Not only are they sending all of their healers into battle. Which is just wrong.. for so many reasons. Including tactically.
But its also really been stated that They're not trained in combat! Why are we sending non combantents into battle! Idc what gender they are!
If they wanted to send SOME of these wimen into battle. Then ee should have seen some sort of scene where.. maybe they have a secret organization where the woman go and train in combative styles of bending. Hell, maybe katara's invited and thats how we learn about it! Maybe that's what inspires katara to stand up for them.
But as it is. We have *all* of the non combat trained healers in battle. Make it make sense
good video
40:32
Jet definitely was a terrorist lol
I never said he wasn't
Well, the random Korra bashing & conspiracy theorizing casting Aaron Ehasz once again as the Patron Saint of Fanwank saved me half an hour, considering I usually watch CZcams videos on double speed, so thanks for putting that up front.
What can I say?
I had to agree with you
The show was really good instead I really loved it regardless of some pacing issues
No it’s not a failure! It was well made and if it was a failure why is it getting 3 seasons? You just want a one on one adaptation which isn’t possible lel
Sounds like the words of someone who definitely engaged with the content of the video!
@@DysnomiaFilms the live action is good factually and that’s it!
@@Loganrock305 Ok furry
@@Loganrock305 : No it's not, it doesn't matter if it got renewed, is still shit !!!! .
@@giuliapicchiotti no it’s a good adaptation and not a failure at all! It was well received by fans
i mean is the show a failure no is it as good as the og well no but i think its better than the kora or what ever that crap was also hopefully they learn from season 1 and do better in 2 and 3 also this show is probs gona suffer from the new lets make a season 8 ep instead of 10-15 or even 20
I agree Korra was crap. And 2 more episodes could have helped this season a lot.
am I the first comment? Sweet!
I liked it. They said his name right. They tried to make katara a merry sue. By skipping a ton of stuff. Definitely was rushed, the secret tunnel should have been redone. But i liked how zuko was portrayed in the show.
"They said his name right"
This is what M Night has done to our standards.
I hate Merry Sues.
@@DysnomiaFilmsSeriously. If this show had come out before the movie, everyone would be bashing it for the pile of absolute shit that it is