Hey! It’s Molly Acquard, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (ATLA) stan, and I’m back. Now, if you’ve read part one already, welcome back! Lovely to have you here with me as I recount my final thoughts on Netflix’s live action adaptation of ATLA. If you’re new here, go read part one on my page and then come back! So, I’ve finished the show (thank God) and I’m here to talk about Zuko, Iroh and Azula and even touch a bit more on Katara and some other characters we talked about in part one as we finally get to see some scenes of substance that include Katara.
So, I feel I should start with characters we’ve already discussed: Katara and Sokka before shifting focus to Zuko and Azula. So, now that the live action has finally given its viewers a better glimpse of Katara let’s dive in. First, why it took until episode five out of eight to show Katara, Sokka, and Aang having a conversation full of their banter I can’t begin to know. It is moment such as the three of them flying on Appa planning what’s next while also including some silly banter and sarcastic comments from Sokka that we see the chemistry between them and how close they’ve grown in a fairly short time.
Again, I simply don’t have the space to go into everything that I feel is wrong or every plot point that should not have been monkeyed around with *cough* Koh the face stealer *cough* (truly the majority of Episode 5: ‘Spirited Away’ was just so hard to watch) Instead, I am going to focus on Team Avatar (Aang, Katara, and Sokka) in the final two episodes of the live action. I feel this is where the plot begins to unravel (especially if Netflix thinks they’re going to be renewed for a season 2). If you haven’t already assumed, spoilers ahead (for both the animated and live action series).
When Team Avatar finally gets to the North Pole, and Aang finds out that Paku will not teach Katara waterbending because of the sexist customs of their tribe, he agrees it is not a good idea, as he does not want Katara to get hurt. This is a complete 180 of Aang in the animated series. Aang is furious that Paku won’t teach Katara and even says he will not learn from Paku if he will not train Katara as well.
Later, when Aang is caught re-teaching Katara the moves he has learned from Paku, it comes to a head. Katara challenges Paku, a waterbending master to a fight. Now, enter Sokka, who tells her that she’s crazy and she won’t win. He in no way encourages the fight. The choice to fight Paku is completely and totally Katara’s. She needs no convincing. It is not about winning for her; it is about proving that women are stronger than Paku thinks and can hold their own in a fight. She is trying to prove she is just as good as any man and deserves to be trained as so. Let me say it again: SHE NEEDS NO CONVINCING! Especially not from Sokka.
When the fight does begin, Aang does not try and stop Katara as he does in the live action. He is watching from the sidelines, cheering her on. Aang has never thought that Katara wasn’t strong enough to handle herself. Does this mean he has no concern for her? Of course not! He can care for Katara and be worried while also knowing that she is a strong bender and a fierce fighter. This is what is so great about Aang and Katara’s relationship. My final point for Katara and Aang has to do with Katara bringing Aang back after he uses the Avatar state and connection with the spirits to become the Ocean spirit.
The moment in which Katara brings him back would be much more compelling if she was the one to take him out of the Avatar state back at the Southern Air Temple. I noted this in my last part so I’m glad it is coming full circle here. If they wouldn’t have changed that scene in the live action, if we could have seen Katara talk to Aang and tell him that she and Sokka are his family now. If we could have her grab his hand and see as he exits the Avatar state completely… Well, we would have known that she is the only one who can get him out of the Avatar state when he loses control because she is his anchor.
The most touching example is in season two, episode eleven of the animated series. After Aang finds out it was a group of sand benders who took Appa, and that they have sold him to people in Ba Sing Se, he once again loses control as he goes into the Avatar state. Katara can fight through the strength of the air he is bending and touch his hand, making him look down to see the look of sorrow on her face. A look that tells Aang that she cares for him and understands the heartbreak of losing Appa, but that she needs him to stop for everyone’s safety. One look, one touch from Katara is all it takes for him to gain his control back. I can’t help but feel the creators of the live action don’t understand how crucial these scenes are to Aang and Katra’s relationship, and deep down, their friendship.
The only thing I have left to mention for Sokka has to do with something he says to Yue in the live action. Sokka says that when he was a kid, he overheard his father, Hakoda say that he was disappointed in Sokka and that he wasn’t cut out to be a warrior, that he didn’t believe in him. This is a moment in the live action that genuinely made me question my knowledge of the original show. I could remember that Sokka was always trying to make his father proud, and that anytime Hakoda told Sokka how proud he was of him, Sokka was beaming. It made me question whether Hakoda had said he was disappointed in Sokka. It was like the Mandela Effect was happening in real time inside my brain.
A search through the episodes of the animated series and a conversation with one of my brothers put these thoughts to rest. Hokoda has never said he was disappointed in Sokka or that he wasn’t cut out to be a warrior. Especially when he was a kid. Hakoda has only love and pride for both of his children. I feel the reason I questioned my existence for a second was because in the animated show, as I said before, Sokka does seem to care immensely about proving himself as a warrior to his father. It is not because of any harsh words he overheard his father saying, though.
I think Sokka looks at the situation of his father leaving him to fight in the war as his father thinking he is not cut out to be a warrior, but Hokoda never actually says this. Hakoda doesn’t want Sokka to come with him and the other warriors for two reasons: one, he is too young and two, because Hokoda wanted him in the South Pole to watch over Katara. Yes, she has Gran Gran, but Hakoda knows Katara and Sokka will need each other after the death of their mother. He also trusts in Sokka to protect their village and teach the boys what it means to be a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. I wish I could comprehend why they have made Hakoda out to be more along the lines of Ozai as a father. I mean, believe me, Hakoda won’t be getting any father of the year awards, but he loves his children and there was a war going on. He had a duty to his tribe.
Okay, let’s move on to Azula. This one has got me quite distraught, so buckle up. The main issue here is that the creators of the live action are trying to make Azula a more tolerable character and get people to sympathize with her right off the bat. It seems to me as if they are trying to give her a reason to be the way that she is. The live action has Ozai use Zuko as bait to improve Azula’s skill. In the live action, it seems to the viewers that Ozai does not want Azula to know about her excellence. Maybe he thinks she will not work as hard if she thinks she is already perfect.
The issue? Ozai would never discount Azula. It is true that Azula strives for perfection, but she already knows that she’s perfect. In the live action Azula is lacking this trait. She has so much self-doubt as soon as we see her. Another reason it is not in character for Ozai to diminish Azula, even if it is a lie, is that he only ever shows her off. This “trial” scene in the live action where Azula doesn’t pass? Where Ozai thinks she could have done better? It isn’t in either of their personalities. Ozai didn’t play games with Azula. He was trying to gain control over the other Nations, he didn’t have time for games. In fact, Ozai is part of the reason Azula knew from a young age she was a total prodigy.
The animated show has a flashback scene in which Ozai has Azula show off her firebending to Sozin, his father and Fire Lord at the time. Ozai using false praise towards Zuko to fuel Azula’s fire, no pun intended, is not needed. The truth is, Azula and her father are one in the same. Hungry for power. They do not justthink the Fire Nation is better and deserves to be the supreme leader of all Nations, they believe it to be true. Having Ozai use false praise of Zuko shouldn’t work on her. Azula doesn’t fear Zuko, she never has until their final Agni Kai. Even then, she goes into the fight with confidence. Azula would never see Zuko as a threat. She KNOWS she is better than him. Unfortunately, the way they have portrayed Azula just isn’t it for me.
Perhaps the underlying issue is that Azula is not even supposed to be in season one. Well, not in any featured role, that is. In the animated show, we get one glimpse of Azula in the last second of the season. A sort of warning of what is to come. Azula has a sharp and condescending air about her. She has superiority to her, and rightfully so. She prides herself on being a royal and a firebending prodigy. Which brings me to my next point. The bow and arrow? It doesn’t seem to play a huge role in the live action, so why did they add it at all?
As I said, Azula is a firebending prodigy, she would never pick up a weapon such as a bow and arrow because she doesn’t need to. It doesn’t make sense in terms of her character. And seeing as how they never give an explanation, I assume it is to make her a “badass female character,” but this isn’t “The Hunger Games,” and she isn’t Katniss. Azula already is a badass female character. Maybe because they diminished her character they needed to compensate? We also see her perform basic hand-to-hand combat with little bending in the live action. Again, Azula has no reason not to use her bending in a fight. I feel like a broken record saying she’s a prodigy, but that is exactly how this live action portrayal of Azula is making me feel–like a broken record.
Next, I want to go into why Azula is in no way a sympathetic character. The best way to describe her is sociopathic. Azula feels emotions such as rage and anger but cannot understand deeper level emotions like love. It is how she miscalculates later in her storyline. She is blind to Mai and Ty Lee’s betrayal. As Mai says, “You miscalculated, I love Zuko, more than I fear you.” She doesn’t see it coming. She only understands rage and its driving emotions. It is how the Fire Nation teaches them how to fuel their bending. It is why her bending is blue in the animated series. This also explains her response to Mai: “No, YOU miscalculated. You should have feared me MORE!” Azula’s transition from a regular orange flame to blue is not a transition we see in the animated show. In flashbacks of when Zuko and Azula were younger, it is orange, but the first time we see the current Azula bend in the show it is blue.
The live action could have added a new element to the show by doing a flashback scene where we see the moment it changes. Instead, they seem to be setting it up as a current storyline in the show. I really wish the live action would have played into Azula’s original character more. One example is the scene when she says, “my own mother thought I was a monster.” Azula knew their mother loved Zuko more. It didn’t matter because she knew her Father loved her more than Zuko. It was fair. They each had a parent who favored them. Azula’s response to her own statement: “She was right of course, but it still hurt.” They should be playing into how it hurt her.
The first time we, as viewers, feel sympathy for Azula is the final Agni Kai and the moments leading up to it. You see just how off the rails she’s gone after her friends betrayed her. You start to look back on Azula at the beach with Ty Lee, Mai and Zuko. She genuinely seems to be trying to help her friends figure out their issues. Also, at Chan and Ruon-Jian’s party before that, Azula hurts Ty Lee’s feelings by calling her a tease. But she apologizes immediately when Ty Lee starts to cry. Azula then admits that she was jealous, and she whispers it. She does not want to admit that she is anything less than perfect. She’s ashamed because admitting to this jealousy feels like doing exactly that. Ty Lee is rightfully shocked by this because Azula is the “most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world.” Azula can’t understand jealousy because she is completely unfamiliar with it. Her reply to Ty Lee is “well, you’re right about all those things,” again, she knows that she’s perfect, so why she feels jealous of anyone is a concept she can’t grasp. Azula has so much to her, and you can tell that the original creators of ATLA, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, thought this out.
The fact that as a viewer you go from disliking Azula and not feeling a drop of sympathy for her, to feeling genuinely heartbroken for her when it comes to the final Agni Kai with Zuko? Now that is how you write a complex character! She’s lost any drop of sanity she once had, but she is still confident that she’ll come out on top. Azula’s “I’m sorry it had to come to this, brother” followed by Zuko’s “no, you’re not.” Shows you that she is faking sympathy. “Azula always lies,” is what Zuko has had to tell himself for years because it’s true and she’s good at it. Only when Azula is bound in chains, screaming, crying and shooting fire out of her mouth because her hands are bound do you feel truly heartbroken for this girl who grew up with no love simply because she didn’t understand it or the need for it. Even Zuko has sympathy for her. He knows it must be done, but it still hurts to see.
Alright, the last character we’ll touch on is Zuko, and a bit of Iroh, seeing as Zuko’s development relies partly on his uncle. At first glance, I felt that Zuko was portrayed the most like the original animated character. If there is any truth to the claim that Dallas Liu was given tips from the original and beloved voice actor of Zuko, Dante Basco, it shows. Liu also practices Japanese Shotokan and competed in the North American Sport Karate Association. His skill in Karate really adds to Zuko’s fight scenes, it makes his bending look the most realistic and true to the animated show in my opinion. There are two main plot changes that involve Zuko that I feel disrupt his redemption arc. I feel disruption of character development is most important when it comes to Zuko. He goes from trying to please his father and regain his honor by capturing the Avatar to joining Aang and team Avatar to stop the war against his father, or in shorter terms: villain to hero.
The scenes where Zuko saves Aang from Zhao as the Blue Spirt… Though there are many plot points leading up to Zuko saving Aang from Zhao that were changed, the actual depiction of Zuko saving Aang as the Blue Spirit was quite spectacular. It followed the scene from the animated show well enough that I knew exactly what was going on. That is yet another thing I feel happens with Netflix trying to do this half true to the original/half made-up thing with the plot. I don’t know what’s going on, because they get to parts that have been made up to make the show somewhat new.
There is no explanation, so I’m completely lost as to what they are trying to do. The Blue Spirit scene was good up until a point. Aang takes the Blue Spirit mask off only to realize (much to his surprise) it was Zuko who saved him. He then decides he can’t leave Zuko there unconscious, no matter what he’s done. Aang is good, he knows what will happen to Zuko if he leaves him there. It was once Aang starts talking to Zuko that I have an issue. The live action portrays this as a nice conversation between enemies. A heartfelt back and forth, with Zuko even smiling at one point. I feel the live action doesn’t realize the extent of their changes such as this one. They haven’t stopped to think about why it is only Aang who talks to Zuko at that same part in the animated series.
The reason it is Aang talking to a barely conscious Zuko is because it is the inverse of a later scene that they have taken out of the live action entirely (why yes, that ismy second main plot point I’m going to discuss. How’d you know)? In the animated show, what Aang says to Zuko is this: “Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we’d get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of the best friends I ever had. And he was from the Fire Nation, just like you. If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?”
Without skipping a beat, Zuko throws a fire blast at Aang causing him to flee immediately. Creating this back-and-forth conversation between Aang and Zuko in the live action is too much for the moment. DiMartino and Konietzko knew that Zuko and Aang’s development had to be slow. It had to fit with the fact that Zuko’s development in and of itself is slow. Zuko makes mistakes, he faulters, but that is what makes his transition so exceptional, believable and relatable.
So, on to that second plot point, the inverse of the scene described above, the scene that was erased from the live action: Zuko capturing Aang while he is in the Spirit World at the Spirit Oasis. Removing this scene diminishes the development of the two together, but also of Zuko and Iroh as well. It creates a domino effect, and I truly don’t know how the creators of the live action plan to fix it. After Zuko takes Aang, he has nowhere to go. He wanders off into the North Pole, eventually finding a cave where he talks to Aang while he lies there unconscious. Zuko says: “I finally have you, but I can’t get you home because of this blizzard. There’s always something. Not that you would understand. You’re like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She’s a firebending prodigy and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. I don’t need luck, though, I don’t want it. I’ve always had to struggle and fight, and that’s made me strong. It’s made me who I am.” When Aang comes out of the Spirit World, Katara and Sokka are there to save him. After Katara knocks Zuko unconscious with her bending, Aang says they can’t leave him. Aang has a pure heart, he’s so inherently good. It does not matter what Zuko has done to them, he won’t leave him to die.
So, how does removing this scene in its entirety effect Iroh and Zuko’s development? Well, if by the grace of God, the live action gets renewed for season two, it will disrupt a scene that is supposed to take place between Iroh and Zuko. Possibly THE MOST important scene between Zuko and his uncle takes place at the end of season two. In Ba Sing Se (Lake Laogai, specifically), Iroh delivers a very important speech to Zuko containing one of the most coveted Iroh quotes by ATLA fans.
When Zuko finds Appa, Iroh asks him what he plans to do. Where does he expect to take Appa, a giant sky bison? Zuko says he must get Appa out of Lake Laogai first. “Then what!” Iroh yells. “You never think these things through! This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Pole! You had him, and then you had nowhere to go!!” Zuko responds with “I would have figured something out.” Iroh continues: “NO! If his friends hadn’t found you, you would have frozen to death!”
“I know my own destiny, Uncle.”
“Is it your own destiny or is it a destiny someone else has tried to push on you?”
“Stop it uncle, I have to do this.”
“I’M BEGGING YOU prince Zuko! It’s time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the big questions: Who are you? And what do YOU want?!”
This is SUCH AN IMPORTANT SCENE. This scene is PIVITAL for Zuko. He ends up making the right decision, and freeing Appa. It is the first step he takes towards his redemption before falling three steps back, reverting to his old wishes of regaining his honor and taking his rightful place at the throne. He turns his back on his uncle, who is put in prison by the Fire Nation. Zuko spends the time after the invasion in season three trying to correct what he’s done and gain his uncle’s forgiveness. He regrets turning his back on his uncle and takes every step to fix his mistake. Zuko defying and turning against his uncle is his greatest disappointment. To ruin the story now is to destroy the ability to build on such points later. So much of late season two and three is built on what happens now. By removing it, the writers remove any potential to come full circle later. To have the satisfying closure and the Zuko redemption arc that every ATLA fan holds so dear.
In conclusion, Netflix is thinking with their wallets, and not with their brains–as per freaking usual. In this case, it’s “YOU REMOVED THE PLOT POINTS AND THEN YOU HAD NOWHERE TO GO!” Yeah, I think that sums it all up pretty well.
Me after finishing the ATLA live action: