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I have an interesting relationship with ATLA. When the animated series first aired, I heard about it but never watched it as I was a senior in high school and cartoons weren’t my thing. (That time period didn’t have the best track records of shows IMO)
Years later, when Netflix became a thing with their DVD and the early days of streaming, I watched The Last Airbender movie and loved it. I hadn’t watched the series, I just knew it was a thing but didn’t know the premise.
Years after that, the series first dropped on Netflix and I watched. Little did I know the film changed so much but I watched the entire series and loved it. As for the movie, yes it’s a horrible rendition but it did one thing right for me - it got me hooked into the world and I learned what the true source is.
As for this series, I enjoyed it but I took the lesson from the movie. It’s doing its job in getting people hooked who have never seen the series and being enjoyable to those who have and have an open mind.
I disagree completely that Bumi still feels like Bumi. I strongly dislike the changes they made to his character. I understand they might make him more realistic, but at the end of the day this is a fantasy world, and realism typically doesn't translate to the best story for a fantasy world. Also, the whole point of Aang meeting Bumi in the original is for him to learn a lesson about thinking outside the box and how that will help him defeat the Fire Lord. In this show, I don't feel like Aang was meant to actually learn anything from Bumi, and in fact, it seems like Bumi was the one who needed the lesson. It just feels very contradictory to the whole base theme of ATLA, which is a child needing to grow up too quickly to take on the Avatar's responsibilities, and needing to learn from both his friends and mentors to get to a point that he can do that. This version of Bumi does not fill that role of mentor at all, in my opinion, and it seems like they changed his personality just for the sake of making changes, not for a specific reason. Overall, this was by far the weakest episode for me so far, despite the fun moments with the secret tunnels and the nomads.
I understand changes had to be made for the series and went into it knowing there was no way for it to be a 1-to-1 recreation. I just feel like some of the changes they've made don't serve the story or main theme in any way.
You can't please everyone honestly. The Disney LA adaptations are hated because they changed the stories. But when The Lion King came out as a 1:1 adaptation everyone hated it too. I'm with you Ruff, it can't be worse than the movie and I didn't expect it to be better than the OG ATLA. I feel like this is what the show could've been if they made it left out the kid-based audience and if you sorted out all the extra filler adventure episodes this is what would be left. But that's my opinion.
I can't believe you're comparing this to The Lion King remake haha, there is a very good reason people hated that one.
Don't get me wrong I love OG ATLA but I honestly love the Bumi changes, he's more realistic. a Real person going through a 100 year war being the leader of a city the size of Omashu, wouldn't just be all cheery at the sight of their old friend avatar Aang, there'd be some animosity and resentment.
If I was watching this on my own..no reactions/reactors to watch with..this episode would have kept me from continuing. I hate the choices made with Bumi. He is supposed to teach Aang to think outside the box..'think like a mad genius' while also being stern of the importance of being the avatar.. He was just mean and definitely not his friend. Also the reveal of who he is immediately was pointless. I just feel like they changed things just to be different and not for a real purpose. Im ok with this show being different but some of these choices genuinely change the characters for the worse..in some cases pure cringe. They really had me back after episode 2..and it keeps losing me again. Sigh. I WANT to like this. I wanted this to be One Piece live action levels of love for me..but yeh.
The original is still there
"If you're expecting a 1 to 1 recreation of the show going into it, and expecting it to make you feel the same way, and to hit the same beats. I gotta say man that's just naïve, and why would you go into this looking for the exact same show? we have Avatar the Last Airbender. The original cartoon is not going anywhere. I want the Netflix adaptation to do different things, explore different concepts, and angles, and our characters. If it doesn't I honestly think that's a failure. I don't want the exact same thing again it would just be a waste of time, and with how great the original show is if you are just trying to make a carbon copy you just end up making an inferior product."
-Overanalyzing Avatar
Didn't notice until just now but Leaves from the vine is playing in the background when Zuko sits through his sons funeral :(
yeah it was also playing in the background during the flashback scene of Iroh joining Zuko on the ship after he was banished and while they were on the boat after that. I wanted to cry every time I heard it ?
idk i like some of the ways they changed bumi for this! like yeah he's crazy and over 100 years old but he's still person who had to go through this war, which began when he was a child. he then had the pressures of becoming king and looking after the whole of omashu AND he's lived through 100 years of war most likely by himself. his closest friend just disappeared when he was young and he got no closure on that until he appears randomly in his city 100 years later. realistically, he is going to have some negative feelings over that no matter how crazy he is!
I lost my shit when I realized "Leaves from the vine" was the music in the background of Lu Ten's Funeral
Cried so hard I needed to stop watching- damn good moment!
Ayo, so subtle and unnecessary a change, but I like that they made Oma and Shu both women.
there was an edited photo where anakin skywalker shows up at the air temple, aiming for the kids... i know its fucked up but it made me laugh so hard my family got scared
I’m one for change, but it feels like everything they change in this series completely misses the point of the original, I’m still enjoying the story for what it is, but it’s strange watching something so… wrong?
Episode 6 did it better than the original and I'll die on that hill.
I get where your coming from, and in some ways i can agree, but I am enjoying a lot of new things they’re adding to the series that the og didn’t have, like iroh’s son’s funeral and first ep’s opening seen where they tricked the earth kingdom.
If they do a time skip for aang’s ageing the best place would be post aang’s death/revival when he’s unconscious and wakes up with hair. But with earthbending so amazing, toph’s intro to the series is going to be mind blowing!
Oh, not sure if you noticed, but they made a good orchestral piece of 'Leaves from the Vine', in the Iroh backstory. (Maybe you did notice, but just gonna point it out since it wasn't commented on. Definitely made the scene more impactful.)
i cried when I saw they kept Lu Ten's portrait from the cartoon because the drawing was based of off Mako (Iroh's og VA)
I love Iroh, but he had that mistreatment coming due to the suffering he caused in his war days. It hurts still to see the people who suffered finally get their licks in when we know Iroh suffered from the war with the loss of his son and what not.
oh he definitely did, but i feel like his characterization of defending his war crimes feels completely antithetical to the character from the original
Also I just realized the flashback scene with zuko and Iroh had that song iroh sang when he celebrated his sons birthday in that one episode.
man... I hate Bumi's characterization in this episode
same, i think he's just too hateful of aang, i see what they were going for, but I just jut prefer the one where he had hope again as soon as he realized it was Aang, and that their friendship was still as strong as ever, but ig it doesnt make sense within the tone this show set.
yeah, along with that, Mr. Neutral Jin should not be giving Aang a lecture about needing to fight when you don't want to.
Aang is supposed to arrive and get a lesson from Bumi about keeping his childlike spirit and relying on friends. But here Aang is the One to teach the lesson. The show doesn't seem to want to have it's characters have flaws and grow