Live Action Avatar the Last Airbender

Iroh and Aang are captured together, again before we meet Bumi. I would love to know what the hell was going on in that writers room. What led to the decision to just fuck structure and season distinctions? Why exactly did you think that these storylines needed to happen now? Why did we decide to cut actual season 1 moments that would have helped the impact of these eventual storylines? And why exactly don’t you people seem to understand storytelling 101? Here's the deal adaptations are the easiest, simplest form of writing. They take little to no knowledge, creativity or even thought and yet these writers weren't even capable of that. If you are trained as a writer adaptations are easy work, this is ridiculous.

The character designs are at least done very well. The problems with this show are definitely not visual. I definitely thought there was 0 chance of them keeping secret tunnel and it did give me some hope, but the nice little things that built in fans wanted to see does not offset or justify the major structural issues with the show and its pacing.

Revealing who the king is right away and then introducing his little tests really kind of pulls the rug out from under he and Aang’s friendship. Literally every problem this adaptation has can be boiled down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the characters, the story and their purpose. If you are adapting something beloved you would think that a good portion of the development process would be to not only watch the original, but study the screenplays and break down what the purposes of each story beat are. Why is this here? What purpose does it serve? Considering that is what writers are taught to do with every single scene, why would adaptations be any different? Who is getting these writing jobs because every single person in my writers group would have done a better job.

The combination of storylines is actually so terrible. It doesn’t make any sense and it's very distracting. Why is our little group separated AGAIN? When are they supposed to bond, Katara is supposed to be Aang’s best friend and they have had literally no time together. This is only going to lead to more very forced “connection” moments that are paid off with absolutely no set up.

Okay I would have thought that they would consider the spirit realm episode filler but it's here so I guess I appreciate that. HOWEVER Sokka and Katara going to the spirit world with Aang is yet another terrible decision. See this is what I mean by the writers not knowing the purpose of how this story was told the first time. Only the Avatar can commune with the spirit world, what is the purpose of taking civilians? That literally cheapens Aang's ability to crossover in the first place. Avatar was based in so many real, actual asian cultures. Aang’s ability to crossover into the spirit world stems from the Avatar’s ability to meditate, and connect with the energy of the world around him. This is not an ability just anyone has. Also the owl spirit DOES NOT SHOW UP IN THIS SEASON.

The pacing of this series is just very very terrible. It's so fast and there is no build up, nothing between the characters, no chemistry. It’s just very disappointing. Not only does it seem like the “creative” team gutted the show of it's charm and purpose but they also seem to have gutted it of it's soul and groundedness.