It is now time for the negative portion of my review. I want to be thoughtful about it though – there’s no use in hating on a show just to hate on it, but constructive criticism can always be beneficial (like they’ll listen to me, but a girl can dream, right?) Anywho, as I said in my previous post, I think this show has good potential, but it’s not being used correctly. That failing is no more obvious than in their character development. 

There is one glaring flaw with most if not all of the younger characters: they are not allowed to have any significant failings or able to make any disastrous choices. No, those have to be saved for the adults. There’s no chance for the kids to ask for forgiveness or work through the consequences of their poor decisions and actually learn from them. And because the show refuses to let the young ones have any failures or flaws, it significantly nerfs their character development and arcs. 

Let me explain.

We’ll start with my guy, Zuko, because why not? He’s my fav. I like the actor for him and I think he’s doing a decent job with what he’s given. Especially as the show progresses, he becomes more and more relatable and likeable. 

And therein lies the problem. Zuko is supposed to be the main villain of season 1 and by the end of the season, though the viewers might feel a bit more empathy for him, he’s still a bit of a hotheaded jerk and antagonist – he’s certainly not well-liked by Team Avatar. 

The live action seems determined to skip over any flaws and want to get right to season 3 Zuko, which this actor really embodies quite well. The show refuses to let him burn down Kyoshi village or taunt team Avatar or throw his many tantrums in his quest to take down the Avatar and in doing so, relieves him of much of the responsibility of the pain that Team Avatar goes through. Instead Zhao gets to be our main antagonist (and boy, was that guy miscast) and by the end, it seemed like Team Avatar thought he was a misunderstood, potential future ally. 

This is a recurring trend throughout many of the young characters – they have their sharp edges whittled down, there’s nothing to dislike about them, and because the show does that, there’s nowhere for the characters to grow. 

At this point, I don’t believe this particular Zuko will turn against Team Avatar and Iroh by the end of season 2. He’s already way too conflicted and nice for that – he’s never really done anything too evil against anyone. Which means either that he’s going to seem really out of character when he does turn against them or it won’t be a significant betrayal, which will ruin one of greatest character arcs ever written (in my humble opinion). You’ve got to let the kid do bad things and mess up terribly in order to showcase his struggle for redemption more significantly.

For example, at one point in the cartoon, Zuko has changed so much that he loses his ability to bend because he is no longer fueled by the anger that drove him. He literally has to find another source to draw from to firebend and unlearn many of his Fire Nation practices in order to control his element again. When he come to terms with what he wants for his life, it makes his victory and redemption all the sweeter, because it was so hard won and came at such great personal cost. And I don’t think the live action is setting him up correctly to achieve that. 

And they certainly aren’t doing development well with Azula.

Ah, Azula. My crazy queen. 

Azula is such an interesting character – she’s vicious, a prodigy, arrogant, and she will take down anyone in her quest for glory (even her closest friends). I see her and Zuko as two sides of the same coin. Ozai’s abuse torments Zuko to the point where he will do anything to please him, which forces Zuko to realize that nothing ever will and that breaks him to some extent, forcing him to seek answers and belonging elsewhere. Whereas Azula’s never been terribly mistreated by Ozai because he’s seen in her the same mad ambition and lust for power that he has – she’s everything he wants his heir to be. At the same time, she still suffers mental abuse from her father because she knows that anything less than perfection might lead him to reject her and that knowledge, combined with losing her friends (through her own fault), drives her to insanity. 

The live action Azula doesn’t even feel like Azula. She’s striving for the love of a father who will never approve of her (while her friends “yaaass, queen” her up – I don’t know who those girls were, but they weren’t Mai and Ty Lee) and then talking back to him at one point (which, as Friendly Space Ninja points out in his review, cartoon Azula would never do). The show took all of her sharp edges away and made her into a girl boss with daddy issues. She is supposed be a villain; let her be evil and crazy. We all loved her in the cartoon; I promise that letting her be her evil self will not make her lose fans.

Also, Ozai always comparing her to Zuko is so anti-canon: it was exactly the opposite, Azula was always taunting “Zuzu” about his inability to compare with her, even insinuating that his father wanted to kill him. I think the live action was trying to show that Ozai was playing one sibling against the other, but it just weakened Azula’s character so much. Thanks, I hate it. (Ozai’s great though – kudos on that casting choice). 

Alright, we’ll leave the Fire Nation family alone for now. 

What about Sokka? 

Again, this guy has so much potential – you can almost feel the actor trying to make him more likable, but the dialogue hampers him so much. When he’s allowed to get a few quips in here and there, I’m like, “Yes, okay! I see it!” I think he could be a great Sokka, but right now, he is so serious and so subdued, that I’m struggling to connect with him. I’ve already talked about how some of his flaws were worn down (see post here), so I won’t go into it again other than to say, you gotta let him be the meat and sarcasm guy. You just gotta. And also, Hakoda would never degrade his son like this show did – stop making all of the adults jerks!

Then there’s Katara. Bland, boring Katara. What did they do to her? They took away her anger (which fuels a lot of her drive, up until the last season when she goes on a revenge quest with Zuko), they nuked her feistiness, her motherly tendencies, even her ambition to learn waterbending. Instead we’re left with this expressionless version of her that’s just kind of…there. I saw a tiny bit more emotion from her in the last episode which gave me a glimmer of hope, but they really gotta let her have some flaws and some spirit because I can’t stand this version of her.

And what about our main hero, Aang? Much like Sokka, I think that Aang has potential. He certainly looks like the character and, when he’s allowed to be fun, I could see him becoming the Avatar we all know and love. The problem, again, is that they’ve just made him far too serious. He tells us (and that’s another problem that this show has, it tells so much and doesn’t show enough) that he enjoys certain hobbies and foods, but he doesn’t really act like he ever has fun. He is singularly focused on becoming the Avatar and feeling ashamed that he was gone for a hundred years. 

Which leads to the second problem that I have with Aang – much like Zuko, he has all responsibility removed from him. In the cartoon, he runs away from his responsibility as the Avatar, which leads to him hibernating in the ocean for a hundred years. He wrestles throughout the show with the heavy weight that is placed on his shoulders, preferring to spend his time visiting all of his favorite hangouts and playing all his favorite games. It’s part of his character development that he finally owns up to what he needs to do and prepares adequately, but it’s an ongoing struggle for him as he goes through the show. 

In the live action, he has to “clear his head” and gets lost in the storm, so he’s entirely without fault in his disappearance. And all of the other Avatars shaming and scolding him just kind of feels like child abuse since he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Why would you take away the opportunity for him to learn and grow? I just don’t get it. 

Overall, most if not all of these kid actors lack energy and genuine emotion in their performances. A lot of people might argue that I should give some of these actors a pass because they’re just kids. And sure, they could grow into their roles more, I do see some potential. But excusing bad acting as them just being kids is also a lazy excuse when we’ve seen some really good acting from kid performers (just look at Stranger Things or watch any sort of Korean drama – they somehow always get amazing kid actors). I might sound a bit harsh, but I literally just finished helping with our school’s production of the Wizard of Oz and some of our kid actors in that play were phenomenal and honestly, better actors than some of these Avatar kids. If you direct them well and challenge them to give their best, kids are more than capable of rising to the challenge. Anyway, moving on.

Iroh’s…fine, I guess. I don’t have any specific issues with him, but I’m not quite sold on him either. Again, he got better over time, but I don’t know, something seems missing with him. Maybe his all-consuming love for tea?

Zhao was terrible. He had all the intimidation of Vizzinni from Princess Bride, who I couldn’t help but hear when he talked.

He lacked presence, he lacked any form of threat, he felt more like an annoying fly that kept butting into conversations instead of someone who could threaten Zuko and Iroh. He kind of got better in the last episode, but wow, what a let down. Lieutenant Jee had more threat than he did.

Bumi. I just. How could you do that to him?! Friendly Space Ninja sums up all of my thoughts on him (warning for language) in his video, minutes 53:00-57:00. He said it perfectly, I have nothing else to add. 

I could go on to add more about how the show consistently has to exposition dump on you instead of showing you in an intriguing manner (Writing 101: Show don’t Tell) or how all the plotlines meshing together in Omashu was super confusing or wonder why all of the Spirits are suddenly showing up in the forest together….but I think I’ll end my analysis there. 

Again, you may ask, why do I care?

Some people are against live action adaptations as a whole. I’m not because I think it is a unique opportunity to capture the interest of people who would not otherwise watch a cartoon and who miss out on some amazing stories. 

I often think of my dad. My dad and I have extremely similar tastes when it comes to entertainment and I frequently wish that he would watch some of my favorite animes with me because I think he would really like the stories. However, anime is not and never will be his thing. So when the One Piece live action came out and was an absolute blast, I knew I could get him to watch it and love it. And so he did. 

But when I think about showing this live action adaptation of Avatar to him, with how often I have talked about how much I love the cartoon, I think he would find it mediocre at best and bland at worst. It just wouldn’t be a good intro – especially since he made the mistake of watching the movie that came out years ago (at least we can all celebrate that the live action was better than that monstrosity!). 

So, I think the creators missed a vital opportunity to engage a new audience and it is so frustrating because it looks so good but it missed the heart of the show: the characters and their development. I’m also tired of giving lazy writing and bad performances a pass – we’re far too content with half-hearted adaptations and poor writing. We should be holding our entertainment to a higher standard – just because it’s “for fun” doesn’t mean it has to be mediocre. Storytelling, good storytelling, is at the heart of every nation’s culture. We can do better than this, we can expect better than this, especially from something that’s not original in its nature because you already have a wealth of good material to draw from.

But like I said, the last two episodes were good and if they keep along that vein, the second season could be great – as long as they don’t further butcher the characters. 

At least don’t give Toph the Bumi treatment. 

Please?