“Animated ATLA was written for smart kids, Netflix ATLA was written for dumb adults.” -Monk Gyatso, probably

16:09 in the original, Ozai sending Zuko to find the avatar was a great subverting of expectations. Zuko is introduced as a classic Scarred Villain, but then you learn his scar was from child abuse and his searching for the avatar was a wild-goose chase his father did just because it’d be a little much to murder his own son. When he sent him off, no one expected Zuko to actually find the avatar, and Zuko’s dedication to the task was a sad example of how he still sought his father’s approval.

In the Netflix, it was like Ozai actually expected him to find the avatar and grow in doing so.

"Any failure on a child actor's part is at least a failure of directing as well"
That's actually a really good point.

Welp...ermmmm...at least Toph is perfectly characterized in line with her role in Book 1.

Something that bothers me is how is it possible that the air nomads had a festival dedicated to the comet and yet be collectively sleeping as the fire nation attacks. What’s the purpose of the festival if not to at the very least watch comet?

The most upsetting thing is this idea of making the show less childish, while dumbing it down incase a child were watching it

Jets in omashu! The mechanist is in omashu! Zukos in omashu! IM IN OMASHU! Is anyone else is omashu that I should know about?! "SECRET TUNNELLLLLL!"

I could talk for hours about how they butchered Aang’s character. They took away everything that made him interesting or human. They took away every highlight scene he had in the original, no Koh talk, no burning Katara, no waterbending at all, no confronting Hei Bai, no running away. Aang is literally just there to talk and enter the avatar state when needed. He learns nothing, does nothing himself and doesn’t grow at all. This is their main protagonist and he’s barely present.

Mai and Ty Lee scenes are so funny. They're like living wallpapers.

I really disliked the lack of Jeong Jeong the deserter.

It’s a very important part of Aangs arc and is the source of the water healing

I actually thought about the points made in Overanalyzing Avatar a lot during my watch of the show. I remember at one point, he points out that in Aang's flashbacks, he's the only young Airbender with tattoos, then you see the older masters with tattoos and the viewer naturally puts it together that Aang is at a much higher level than his peers. Boom, quick visual storytelling.

But in the Netflix version, Gyatso just exposits that Aang is better than everybody else. The entire show has a serious case of "tell, don't show" and it really drags it down.

Seems like the ATLA franchise is eternally cursed to be remade, reinterpreted, and retold by people who just don't get it. Be it movies, comics, video games, or live-action shows, nobody seems to fully understand what made the original 3 season cartoon so great except the fans. Or, if they do understand it, they can't recreate it. And so, it is written, the cartoon will forever proudly hover above its sea of lackluster copies, like tourists photographing the Mona Lisa.

Someone pointed at that the entire show is blocked and edited in a very specific way that specifically leaves it so that it can be perfectly cropped into clips for tiktok. Which I think summarizes the show as a whole very well.

My main gripe with the Netflix version is that it seems to be telling its story based on a checklist of moments from the original show, without the necessary context or smaller moments that made the bigger plot threads as interesting as they were.  It feels very "You guys remember this moment/character/interaction right?  Here it is in live action!  Ok next scene!"

They took out the “adventure” part. Avatar was always suppose to be an action adventure series, not a one shot story. There was never a rush to get the North Pole. Aang only went to Kyoshi island to ride the koi fishes, he only went to Omashu to ride the mail carts.

How did kyoshi know the future if she never read the cracks in the bones?!

“A shitty bison pilot” new patron shoutout

"they just tried to put as much recognizable shit as they could and by putting so many together there's even more fat than ever was" Perfect take

After Aang escapes in the first episode, Zuko turns toward the camera and says "That's okay, I'm still the heir to the throne." The character is reminding the audience of his identity and motivation like it's a children's play, and it's not even been one episode yet! Also, I feel like the writers began the story with all the characters in their final states. Katara is a master waterbender who just needs to believe. Aang is so powerful that he only has to train in order to keep his bending under control. Zuko is empathetic and wants to be friends with Aang. Iroh, in the very first episode, encourages Zuko to defect and join Aang. The writers are lazy and don't want to put any work into developing the characters, so instead, they start in their final state.

"this is my son Teo. He's really in to war for some reason" cracks me up lol