Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Worries Me

In this video I discuss the production details and news of Netflix's Avatar the Last Airbender live action series set to come out this February 2024. I discuss the departure of Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, the controversial casting of Ian Ousley, the critiques about the costuming, and lastly, the worrying trend of remaking media in order to 'fix' the original's problems (i.e. Sokka being sexist).

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tags:
avatar the last airbender,avatar live action,atla news,avatar the last airbender netflix,atla netflix,albert kim avatar,kiawentiio avatar the last airbender,ian ousley avatar the last airbender,avatar

#avatarthelastairbender #ATLA

[destroybananas]

the sexist thing pisses me off so much, out of all the sexist characters in netflix shows you take Sokka out??? Thats the only character thats being criticized for being sexist and his behavior is portrayed as a bad thing, which he also comes to relalize!!! Feels more like they didn't want to have a male character learning to change about his beliefs and become a feminist

[TeroTheShortOne]

Hey Cheyenne, my understanding of the issue with Ian Ousley from Native mutuals and my own experience being from a non-federally recognized tribe isn't the federal recognition, it's that none of the 7 Cherokee tribes recognizes the tribe Ian is from. Even though the main federally recognized band from my tribe doesn't recognize my band, there are others of the 14 bands that do. For all 7 of the existing Cherokee tribes not to recognize the one Ian is from is what makes it suspicious. Again, this is just my understanding from speaking with Native mutuals and my own experience.

[lyricholmes]

Completely agree. A big part of Sokka’s identity is his drive to be a warrior. He’s been taught all his life it’s his duty to fight and protect his tribe, and it’s a huge burden for a sixteen year-old to take on. His father and the rest of the men have left to fight in war, and he’s the only man whose of age left to defend the tribe. It’s a huge responsibility, and at the start of the series he’s not a great fighter. But he’s brave. He stands in front of the Fire Nation ship on his own, staring down certain death, because he believes that’s his duty and he’s the only one who should be putting himself in the line of fire. If Sokka already believes woman are capable fighters, then he wouldn’t feel as if it’s only his burden to bear, and he wouldn’t be able to undergo such an great arc in the later episodes. We see him humble himself to the Kyoshi warriors. He learns that being a warrior isn’t just able being able to swing a sword, or even about being brave, but it’s about humility. Being open to change, asking for guidance and always being ready to learn. His world view changes and he becomes a better person for it. He comes to respect Suki, not just as a woman or as a person, but as a warrior in equal merit. And if Sokka didn’t learn how valuable humility is, I doubt Piando would have agreed to train Sokka later the series. Since it was Sokka’s admittance that he wasn’t a great warrior, and his lack of entitlement which make Piando want to teach Sokka. And after Yue, we see Sokka grapple even further with this notion that it’s his job to protect everyone, and if he doesn’t save everyone he’s failed. Which is something he needs to learn to let go of. More character development! And I think Sokka being a man who was brought up in a patriarchal society is central to a lot of his themes. Additionally, Katara standing up to her brother and Pakku, and proving that being a woman doesn’t make her any less capable wouldn’t hit as hard as if this wasn’t already an established cultural norm she was calling into question. In fact the Fire Nation is the only army which allows woman into their ranks, so it’s a norm which exists outside of the Water Tribe too. I also think animation is the best media for the story of ATLA, but the teasers and trailers do seem promising…

[onekthmatt]

My big gripe with the show is that this is a setting and concept that inherently promises a limitless history of heroes who each have to undertake their own journey to learn and master their bending abilities, but we're getting told the same Avatar's story for the third time.

[TheMoonKingdom]

I'm glad you mentioned being especially kind to child actors, no matter how the new series turns out:)

[Radhaun]

I don't really think they made Azula a "mad woman", I think they pretty correctly showed what happens when you shake someone's core belief structure to it's very core.

Azula had been raised to belief that might made right, fear was the best way to control people, and that she was uniquely powerful. You actually see her start to unravel when Mai and Tylee turn against her. She had internalized being a monster ("my own mother thought I was a monster. She was right of course, but it still hurt"), and she could not imagine a world where anyone could be trusted if her closest subordinates would betray her. She held it together well enough until her only remaining source of validation refused to take her with him for the domination of the Earth Kingdom.

At the end of her fight with Zuko you really see all that lashing out was just due to fear and sadness. She didn't go mad, she just suffered the results of her father's abuse.

[sptony]

Sokka's original storyline WAS the fix he needed. He grew up without any male role models in a village full of women (I can't even remember any male Southern Tribe Members other than Sokka in the first episode). He picked up a very single minded and potentially toxic idea of how and what a man should be and acted on it. How should he not? Given that every other man in the tribe who could have given positive examples was absent for the most time. And he only got to be a badass AFTER he changed his viewpoints, especially after meeting characters like Piandao, who were basically all possible future versions of him.

[hannahbrennan]

I hate live action remakes of animated movies and shows. They just show how little respect the art of animation has.

[bethwilkins]

This show doesn't need a live action adaptation at all imo. The original series is good enough as is and we can always revisit it. Not every property needs a new adaptation or reboot.

[TheNerdWithASuit]

Avatar is so special because it doesn't give any craps about the type of stuff people obsessed with the culture war whine about today. Katara was such a compelling character that had a great arc because she was discriminated against and fought patriachical societies head on, Sokka had to get beatdown by women to the point he had to crossdress in order to be put in their shoes, and Toph came out the gate as the most powerful hero in the show at that point and her first scene was kicking the butt of that universe's equivelant to a WWE superstar. Things that would be considered woke today. Hell, it was arguably catching small degrees of flack for doing what it did back in the day. Forums and online discussions were full of Katara hatred going on and on about how she was too annoying. But the way it is made it age so well (look at that scene where Aang gets reprimanded for pointing out how the Fire Nation textbooks lied about the genocide of his people) and trying to water it down is just mind-boggling. We arguably need the political meat of a show like ATLA now more than ever.

[salomejohnston]

I think on the sexism in other cultures thing, it’s fair to note that although it isn’t blatant in the earth kingdom, we don’t really see any other female earth benders aside from Toph.
And the Kyoshi warriors were pretty far removed from the rest of the earth kingdom.

[eliasvormweg]

Hey great video, but a little reminder: I wrote a scientific paper of social work and the government acts in the context of indigenous tribes and their people in the US. Long story short. The reason, why many tribes are not on a Government funding list is, because the government forces different and different tribes to move into a reservation even though they want nothing to do with each other. If tribes resist this, they will be excluded from government support. But there are also other reasons, such as saving tax money, etc. This is a very complex problem. Many tribes want to be independent, but the state forces them to comply with these requirements in order to receive these funding. It is also possible that certain people are not listed on such lists; this can also have various social or other reasons. Sorry for my bad English, but it's not my native language.

[paulwilliams]

Haven't finished the vid yet, but colorism isn't identical to whitewashing. The actress for Katara is undoubtedly of a background that would suit the cast, but her skin is also very visibly lighter than animated Katara. While not the same ethnicity, many brown kids were entranced by seeing someone (regardless of race) with darker skin on screen. And it was entirely possible to cast someone who matched that in live action.

Sokkas case is more of a whitewashing issue.

Its just another big reason I will always perfer the animated version, and I am very much not looking forward to the live action. I feel it's largely a cash grab riding on the ATLA trend that flared up in 2020 upon its initial Netflix release. But the average viewer's 'obsession' with the series nowhere matches what it was during that initial wave. Only fans of the original remain, and they were skeptical from the word go.

[Caprixorny]

I’m afraid that the Sokka related changes might be a plan to make him more likeable (to make ppl forget about whitewashing) they showed him most in the trailer, he’s the most active on interviews, that worries me

[monster-enthusiast]

I've only seen a handful of tweets about the LA but the ones I saw were "we gotta appeal to game of thrones people" "no more sexism for sokka" and "less girly shit for katara." Why even adapt the story if you're gonna change it??? Like I know the answer's money but come on, man.

[Patchouliprince]

I’m not a millennial but I watched the show on tv when it was first running, it really shaped a lot of my childhood and I’ll always treasure the series so so deeply because of that specific nostalgic perspective. I’m being cautiously optimistic about the remake but I know either way it won’t hit everything that I hope for I’m just along for the ride

[AddisonSandoval]

Thank you for mentioning the Sokka’s actor because so many publications and other channels are not speaking about it. As an Indigenous person I can say people within the communities have been speaking out for a while.

[jannecapelle_art]

for me, the only live action remake of an animated property that has ever made sense was the recent One Piece netflix adaptiation, even though im a huuuuge one piece fan and was very sceptical about it before i saw it. what makes it work in my eyes though are a few things:

- the original creator was on board. in fact he said if he ever was going to make something like that, he'd want it to be now and he was excited for the project. and not only was he on board, he was executive producer and if he said something wasnt right, it had to be fixed as much as possible.
- at least for the first season, they worked as often with practical effects as they could possibly manage and the sets they build were amazing. makes the whacky world feel so much realer than it ever could with cgi.
- seemingly like 90% of the people working on this show were already one piece fans?

and the most important thing that just makes SENSE to make a live action series out of this property:
- it speaks to a whole different target audience than the manga or even the anime. most casual consumers of anime/manga arent gonna sit down and start reading a manga that already has over 1100 chapters and is not even done yet. i mean, a LOT of people dont even know what manga or anime really are! however, an 8-episode season of a hit netflix show? so much more aproachable and .... "consumable". it just makes sense.

it does NOT make sense to remake a property again for the same target audience looking for the same thing that the original gave them. the original avatar series is on netflix! just watch that! i dont see how the remake will give you a better or even just much different experience than just watching that. i mean i hope its gonna be good? but im not super convinced. though i wasnt convinced of the one piece live action at first either, but when i saw the final result? absolutely blown away. maybe atla live action can deliver the same way...??

[katejoseph]

To be fair, Bryke is overhyped. Don’t forget about what happened in TLOK when they started working with different people. ATLA was lightning in a bottle. That being said, I’m excited to see their vision through Avatar studious

[Itsgayread]

The removal of Sokkas character flaws reminds me of the term the "disneyfication of media" how characters can't be "flawed" or even evil, they have to be "misunderstood".