A flying bison, elemental magicians, a 12-yr-old who likes sliding on penguins! If you’ve watched the original animated series, you know that this is a show that looks to be silly children’s cartoon. But then you realise it’s much more than that.
An exiled prince with daddy issues. Adolescent siblings who have to protect and provide for their village. And oh, the 12-yr-old is actually a 100 years older, and the last surviving member of his kind and the fate of the world rests on his shoulders. Whew! That’s too much to handle! What no on saw coming, was that this would go in the history books to be one of the greatest stories ever written.
Adapting the same to live-action was always going to be a tough task. If you remember, there was a movie of the same that failed miserably that I do not even want to mention it here! So when Netflix announced a series run, I was naturally excited, more so because the original creators were on board this time. But then, they left mid-way, and I started having apprehensions. Anyway, its been a week since the series dropped. And how did this rendition fare?
Changes galore!
Not holding back here. I did not like how this started. It took me 3 days to complete the first episode. Partly because they changed how the narrative started and partly because it already made think of what else they might have changed. In retrospect, I understand the need for this change – to set context for the first timers. The show definitely takes its time to setup. But by the time I finished the third episode, I was strapped in. I binged the last 7 odd hours in one shot. Its been a while since I binged on anything really!
What I did not like
- First of, Bumi. They made the mad king go truly mad here and gave him PTSD. Its a very valid dynamic and it was fun to explore this aspect. But it just was not what I wanted to see!
- The relationship between Aang and Katara – the sibling bond has been overstressed here I’d say. But Aang always had a crush on Katara which was not really made evident in the live-action version. They even threw away the cave of two lover story arc and gave it to Sokka and Katara to sort out actually sibling conflict!
- Characters who will matter were introduced as throw-away ones right now. I am speaking about Mei and Ty-Lee. To be honest, no new watcher is going to remember them from what we’ve seen. And two others we shall discuss below.
- I hated this about the show. Uncle Iroh, did not smile enough. This fellow is the greatest philosopher I have come across. A teacher, a pillar to lean on for his nephew. And he was always cheerful!
- Uncle Iroh’s badassery was pushed so much to the background. It was pretty much non-existent!
- A big part of the spirit of book 1 was Aang being a kid doing childish stuff and then coming to terms with his duty to the world as we move forward. But this show was too focused on the mission and Aang did not get to be a kid at all.
I mean, him getting to grow up as a kid is why Gyatso wanted to protect him. It was why he left and was trapped in ice for 100 yrs. That is the core essence of this story to begin with. But it was missed!
Intrigue missed out
Even though it was cartoon and there’s no actor coming in to surprise us with a reveal, Fire Lord Ozai was not shown to the audience. So in book 3, when he finally made an entrance, it felt like an eventful scene. But in the live-action, Ozai was overused to my liking!
And speak about Azula. We only got one shot of her in the cartoon in book 1 that just teased that Zuko’s got a psychotic sister who’s going to wreak havoc going forward. But here, Azula was overused as well and we actually have her being the mastermind in book 1. SMH!!
What worked?!
Now, before I get into this I realised something in the middle of episode 6 as I was jotting down all these points. I was doing something people had done to Batman V Superman in 2016. ! Gatekeeping! I then felt this is not a scene-to-scene to recreation of the cartoon like I wanted. Rather, its an adapted screenplay! I needed to let it be its own thing.
- Iroh, is still Iroh. He’s still the moral compass of the show with all his pearls of wisdom.
- They nailed the casting. Particularly Aang and Sokka.
- The scale they’ve gone for. The bending is really life-like.
- The show takes its time to settle in, but there’s a well written payoff that is worth waiting for.
- And the best thing –
Compassion is a sign of weakness.
It’s amazing how far we’ll go to hide our true selves from the world.
Uncle Iroh
Perhaps it’s because we don’t want people to mean how much they mean to us..
…and its funny, because the truth is we’d do anything for them.
I have said this time and again. Prince Zuko has the best character arc and evolution in all of content I have ever come across. And even in live-action, Zuko stands out. The title for this section, is something he says to Aang.
And that should tell you how screwed up he is. But he has a very good reason to be so. He’s been at war with himself for 3 years, trying to fulfil a destiny that’s been thrust on him. And he ends up antagonising everyone in his path. When I first watched the cartoon, I hated his character. Suffice it to say, it did not end that way.
I urge you all to watch this show. So that Netflix picks it up for another season, and I get to watch Zuko claim what his rightfully his.
