Edited image depicting Gordon Cormier and Kiawentiio as Aang and Katara in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Summary The live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender was always going to struggle when it comes to pleasing fans of the beloved Nickelodeon series. The Netflix show unsurprisingly left at least a portion of the fanbase disappointed. But the issue with the 2023 series wasn’t a failure to faithfully adapt its source material. Despite retaining many of the animation’s best qualities, Avatar: The Last Airbender created faults of its own.
This worked in some places: combining the Omashu and Northern Air Temple plots enabled live-action Avatar to place essential characters like Jet, King Bumi, and the Mechanist in one convenient location. This was a logical move, but the show’s exploration of Avatar’s Spirit World suffered in comparison. A particular oversight saw Aang abandoning his original goal of saving the spirit Hei Bai. Book 2 will offer even more new characters and locations to juggle.
Season 2 needs to exploit the comic talent of its cast. Behind-the-scenes footage shows that the young actors have this in spades. If anything, the decision to ignore the humor at the heart of Avatar makes the live-action feel less mature than its predecessor. The Nickelodeon cartoon still manages to explore serious themes like war, genocide, trauma, and redemption. Its overarching lightness makes its dark spots all the more poignant.
The live-action series made the bold choice to open with a flashback to the destruction of the Southern Air Temple. This worked well to set up the devastating power of Avatar’s villains. The series should take a similar approach in season 2. Rather than characters simply warning the audience to fear the Fire Nation, season 2 could express the threat by examining the war’s impact on the besieged Earth Kingdom – just as it did with Jet’s tragic backstory.
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