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I'm a little over halfway through and I'm not going to be "rarrrr my precious characters" about it but I agree the changes they made to Aang and Sokka don't really work, imo. Aang just coincidentally leaving on a midnight flight to clear his head instead of actively running away really cuts his potential character growth out at the knees. Especially since two separate grown adults absolutely rip into him for running off when he didn't do anything wrong lol. Ditto to Sokka who's not a kid with "big fish, little pond" syndrome and insecurities brought on by wanting to live up to his imagined ideal of manhood. He craves challenge to prove himself and he wasn't provided with any of it before his dad and the other fighting adults left. But here the ice dodging scene shows that no he's uh, actually a fuckup and his dad is secretly disappointed in him. I've got no real problems with Katara, though given that she reads as younger to me I do wish they hadn't cut out her earlier impulsiveness and frustration at Aang being more skilled than her. Her guilt at being present for her mother's murder but unable to do anything to help is a stronger character beat than the cartoon, I think. It's something I would've expected to be directly contrasted to Aang's situation (he wasn't there and thinks he could have done something), but those threads don't quite come together between the characters. Overall my main takeaway is I'm not sure who they made this show for. The dialogue gets so overwritten in places to make sure you take away the right message from the scene. I'd trust an adult to understand a basic story beat of "Azula is threatened and angry that her father praised Zuko" -> "Azula tries to beat the poo poo out of an unrelated guy" without Ty Lee and Mai stepping in to literally say "You could have hurt him" "This wasn't about him, was it". But then they're happy to show multiple scenes of people getting set on fire. So it's not like, meant to be a little kid's show, lol. That said, I think the main cast is doing a good job with their parts. Zuko's actor is really delivering, he's the stand out for me I think. I like the added focus on Azula so far and I'm hoping they lean into the fact that she's also an abused kid of a hosed up genocidal would-be emperor to the world. She's his favorite, sure, but that's not a good place to be, either. Also, idk, I liked Suki being some weird fighting gremlin from an isolated community. She sees a boy she's attracted to for the first time in her life of studying
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Feb 26, 2024 15:10
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 01:22 |
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Tarnop posted:I thought the first episode was awful and haven't watched any more. I didn't like any of the three lead performances or the massive amount of redundant and repetitive exposition. Is there any point me watching more or do these things stay largely the same / get worse To be a more dissenting voice in the thread, I finished the show after giving it the benefit of the doubt and hearing it got better after the first episode. I was marginally okay with it on episodes 2 and 3, but the cracks in the writing got too big to ignore by episode 4. The writing is very blunt for a show ostensibly aimed at adults, like it felt almost insulting for a character to stare at the camera and directly tell me "he isn't a monster, he's just hurt. Pain changes who you are." or "The avatar went THIS way but your uncle went THAT way, which path will you choose........." And I'm really doing my best to separate the nostalgia for the show from this new venture. On its own merits, this new show does not accomplish what it sets out to achieve. The last three episodes fumble the ball pretty hard. Having Zuko actually fight his father in the duel undercuts the entire message the writers directly tell you they want to be the point of the scene. Ozai punishes Zuko for having compassion, but rather than trust the audience to piece together the idea from the fact that Zuko spoke up in defense of unknown soldiers, he pulls his punch in the fight and Ozai tells the camera "compassion is weakness". The entire sexism plot of the northern tribe is handled so badly that the framing and actions of everyone make it look like it was just Pakku being a shithead and everyone else hated it. Aang's merging with the ocean spirit being presented as a form of uh, suicide by ego death sure was a choice. I still enjoy the performances of the main actors, but it really is in spite of the writing.
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Mar 4, 2024 15:48
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