Mako and Bolin are doing a lot of mma inspired stuff, I think. Its explicitly quicker and jabbier.
Yeah like the scene early on where Bolin is teaching Korra to do pro-bending and tells her she can’t hunker down like classic earth bending teaches. Instead you have to stay light on your feet until you strike. I think they might have compared it to air bending or water bending? An outgrowth of the mixing of styles that began in TLA.
Any good adaptation would have to feature the Warriors of Kyoshi, because it would have to feature Suki, who is a criminally underrated member of Team Avatar
Also like
The Kyoshi Warriors and their whole thing plays into the finale of S2 in a pretty big way
The trickiest part of any film adaptation will be how to handle the beginning of the show, where the first 10-11 episodes were very self-contained overall and almost every one contained some information and plot/characterization that paid off later (exception being the Great Divide, which could be skipped entirely without losing anything).
So even if you just go through the Blue Spirit in the first film, you still have to cover:
- Southern water tribe and backstory
- Zuko attack on southern water tribe
- The avatar/avatar state and what it means
- Zhao and the clash with Zuko/Iroh
- Southern air temple, Gyatso, Fire nation attacks on air nomads
- Momo (though, really, Momo could be left out of the story and nothing would be affected except for the Momo story at Ba Sing Se)
- Kyoshi and the Kyoshi warriors
- Omashu and Bumi
- Imprisoned earth benders/earth benders can't bend metal (though minor, they come back later and it's the only earth bending you see aside from Bumi until book 2)
- Spirit world
- Avatar Roku
- Waterbending training, specifically for Katara
- Jet and the freedom fighters
- Zuko's backstory with the scar
- Aang's backstory with leaving
- The Blue Spirit
Seems like a story with a lot of swells and falls, unless you rewrote more of it into a few specific arcs, flushed out the Blue Spirit a bit more (leaving it a mystery to the viewer potentially until later), but it's all super episodic.
The Southern Water tribe and backstory could be a voiceover until you meet Aang (the movie tried this but fell flat with all the exposition).
You could combine the Avatar State, Roku, and Spirit World together (the Gaang gets to the Southern Air Temple, Aang sees everyone dead, then 5 minutes into the spirit world talking to Roku and asking why he's floating and freaking out in the physical world).
You could have Zhao and Iroh butting heads early on, but equals under Zuko. Then Zhao does his thing at the end of book 1, but he wouldn't be that major of a character, unfortunately. You could have these two talk about Zuko's scar to cover that. As for Aang leaving, you could hint at it, but not really get into it until Book 2.
Momo, Kyoshi, Omashu, imprisoned earth benders, and Jet would have to all be cut. Don't show any earth bending, unless it's in the opening montage. I don't know how'd you fit the Kyoshi warriors in this, so it might have to be a book 2 thing with the Earth kingdom being a focus.
Aang and Katara learn waterbending through a montage (maybe you see Kyoshi warriors in this montage).
Blue Spirit could fit in, but if you do up Zuko's arc correctly and give it time to breathe, you could do without it (though I absolutely love everything about it in the show).
Coran Attack!
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PaperLuigi44My amazement is at maximum capacity.Registered Userregular
My memory is a bit hazy, but bending the air straight out of people's lungs was in the wheelhouse right? I always imagined that the scary potential of airbending is what prompted the Air Nomad's lifestyle.
This also answers the "how did the earth queen die?" question I hadn't googled to refresh my memory, so thank you.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Hello, I've been watching Avatar for the first time. I got through season one and was like, okay, this show is pretty good. I have now reached the episode introducing Toph, and now I'm like, oh okay, this show is amazing!
Hello, I've been watching Avatar for the first time. I got through season one and was like, okay, this show is pretty good. I have now reached the episode introducing Toph, and now I'm like, oh okay, this show is amazing!
Hello, I've been watching Avatar for the first time. I got through season one and was like, okay, this show is pretty good. I have now reached the episode introducing Toph, and now I'm like, oh okay, this show is amazing!
Sounds correct
This reminded me of a thing. I dug up an email I sent to a friend like 10 years, to convince him that he should watch ATLA. Complete with mspaint graph.
So yeah, I figured you hadn't gotten around to watching Avatar yet, or maybe watched the first couple episodes and went "eh" kind of l like I did. But I assure you, the first season is the weakest, and the first few episodes are the weakest of that season. To further demonstrate this I attached this handy graph. Please open it up and study it while I point out trends and points of interest.
As you'll see, the function of Awesomeness over time, is almost strictly monotonically increasing on the right, with very few dips.
This is because Avatar was planned out ahead of time, so contains almost no "filler". There are a few episodes which do not directly advance the plot, but they often introduce characters or locales which return. Or are at least, not nearly so annoying as filler in shows such as Bleach and Naruto.
Points of interest:
1. The Blue Spirit: The first episode which made me go "Holy crap this is pretty badass!" If you are feeling doubtful of this show, skip ahead and watch it. Though it would spoil some otherwise nice development that occurs before.
2. Katara goes from being a mediocre water bender, to a pretty dang awesome one.
3. Toph is a hella excellent character, and this is where she shows up. The graph becomes discontinuous here.
4. Did I mention that Mark Hamil is in this?
5. Sokka, who has always been entertaining, and sort of useful, gets his own episode, in which he becomes much more awesome. A nice homage to Master/student relationships in anime and kung-fu movies.
At this point my graph ceased being able to contain the line.
It worked. He responded like week later that he'd watched the whole thing.
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
My memory is a bit hazy, but bending the air straight out of people's lungs was in the wheelhouse right? I always imagined that the scary potential of airbending is what prompted the Air Nomad's lifestyle.
All of the bending styles have some really scary potential to them when it comes to body horror.
Air has the whole "put a vacuum around your head" thing.
Water has blood bending.
Earth bending affected minerals, minerals potentially including the calcium that makes up a considerable amount of your bone structure. (Really glad we didn't see that on screen, the thought of what that might sound like is... unpleasant)
Fire... well, it's not really hidden that people with the ability to create and control fire are really good at causing severe burns.
Earthbending does have
just turning the ground into fucking lava, which is terrifying on its own as we see whenever Bolin breaks it out in Book 4 when everyone flees in horror from it
And firebending
has lightningbending as a specialization, which is almost impossible to block/redirect without extensive knowledge like Iroh's waterbending-esque technique
Mx. Quill on
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
edited June 2020
It's been fun rewatching the show with my wife and picking up on stuff I missed the first time. For example, early on in season 1 we see
Iroh casually redirect a giant bolt of lightning (using the exact technique he teaches Zuko later, so the writers had this worked out in advance!) and no one really remarks on it, but we only learn much later that almost no one else can do that and he worked the technique for it out himself.
3cl1ps3 on
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
It's been fun rewatching the show with my wife and picking up on stuff I missed the first time. For example, early on in season 1 we see
Iroh casually redirect a giant bolt of lightning (using the exact technique he teaches Zuko later, so the writers had this worked out in advance!) and no one really remarks on it, but we only learn much later that almost no one else can do that and he worked the technique for it out himself.
another interesting detail
(season 2 and 3 spoilers)
when Zuko teaches the technique to Aang he does it badly--he doesn't tell Aang that you have to create a path down through your stomach, which is why doing it against Ozai fucks him up so bad
It's been fun rewatching the show with my wife and picking up on stuff I missed the first time. For example, early on in season 1 we see
Iroh casually redirect a giant bolt of lightning (using the exact technique he teaches Zuko later, so the writers had this worked out in advance!) and no one really remarks on it, but we only learn much later that almost no one else can do that and he worked the technique for it out himself.
another interesting detail
(season 2 and 3 spoilers)
when Zuko teaches the technique to Aang he does it badly--he doesn't tell Aang that you have to create a path down through your stomach, which is why doing it against Ozai fucks him up so bad
I thought it was because Aang was effectively pointing a gun at him and had a sudden crisis of 'shit fuck no' and lost control of the energy
Javen on
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
It's been fun rewatching the show with my wife and picking up on stuff I missed the first time. For example, early on in season 1 we see
Iroh casually redirect a giant bolt of lightning (using the exact technique he teaches Zuko later, so the writers had this worked out in advance!) and no one really remarks on it, but we only learn much later that almost no one else can do that and he worked the technique for it out himself.
another interesting detail
(season 2 and 3 spoilers)
when Zuko teaches the technique to Aang he does it badly--he doesn't tell Aang that you have to create a path down through your stomach, which is why doing it against Ozai fucks him up so bad
I thought it was because Aang was effectively pointing a gun at him and had a sudden crisis of 'shit fuck no' and lost control of the energy
when he first absorbs it his reaction is very different from when we see other people do it, it hurts him a lot
you can also see the electricity arcing across his chest
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
It's been fun rewatching the show with my wife and picking up on stuff I missed the first time. For example, early on in season 1 we see
Iroh casually redirect a giant bolt of lightning (using the exact technique he teaches Zuko later, so the writers had this worked out in advance!) and no one really remarks on it, but we only learn much later that almost no one else can do that and he worked the technique for it out himself.
another interesting detail
(season 2 and 3 spoilers)
when Zuko teaches the technique to Aang he does it badly--he doesn't tell Aang that you have to create a path down through your stomach, which is why doing it against Ozai fucks him up so bad
I thought it was because Aang was effectively pointing a gun at him and had a sudden crisis of 'shit fuck no' and lost control of the energy
when he first absorbs it his reaction is very different from when we see other people do it, it hurts him a lot
you can also see the electricity arcing across his chest
It may also be that when Aang tried it, he actually started to waterbend a bit instead of keeping up the firebending.
If they ever do another series in the Avatar universe, I kind of want something where the current Avatar isn't a main cast member. Maybe it's set during the lifetimes of Roku, Aang, Korra, or one of the others we know well, maybe it's set earlier or later, but I'm interested in seeing more stories about people who aren't directly linked to the Avatar, because having everything revolve around this one reincarnating individual makes the world seem kind of small sometimes.
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
And now I'm done with Season 2. Power rankings at this point:
Finished season one and that was quite an ending! Sharp tonal/emotional shift there in the last few episodes. Excited for season two now.
The kids weren’t quite as affected as I thought they might be. They mostly watch the show right now for Aang and Appa’s antics (and laugh a lot at Momo) - which is absolutely fine, and it shows how great Avatar is at capturing a wide range of ages. They don’t particularly care for all the politics and Zuko. But I thought some of the story beats of the last couple of episodes might get to them - nope! They enjoyed it and are looking forward to season two but barely reacted to the end there.
I feel like that would have been a great combo if they had built the whole series around it.
Korea S4 spoilers
If they had Kuvira and Zaheer at odds, causing worldwide mayhem as they fight to control the new republic and establish new countries after Aang allowed for the kingdoms to mix.
The Promise: Okay, but leaning too hard on certain dialogue quirks, and it feels like they came up with the concept of the character conflict and forced the characters into it. The actual main plot is pretty solid, though.
The Search: Really good! This is the "finding what happened with Zuko's mom" one, and it's really well done and actually has a decent handling of it!
I can give a summary in spoilers for those curious.
I've got The Rift already, haven't picked up the others yet.
Summary of Zuko's mom, sticking in a different post so no one accidentally gets it if they quote the previous post:
She was hidden, as the Roku's descendant, on a small island part of the Fire Nation. She was engaged, and then stolen away from her fiancee by the Fire Lord, who wanted to unify the bloodlines, effectively. So she was a prisoner the entire time.
Zuko was gentle and was her favorite as a kid, and she'd been writing letter surreptitiously to her former husband, which were being intercepted, but she realized that. She made a comment in one of them referring to Zuko as "their son" in one of the letters, just as a moment of spite at her husband. He then basically did the abuser tactic of "I'll take it out on him and it's your fault" which is what started that whole thing. After the whole thing with his dad commanding him to kill his firstborn due to Iroh losing his son, she offered to kill the firelord in order to save Zuko, and was exiled, as was described in the show (but it's made explicit that yes, she was the one who killed him). Azula, at some point (but I can't remember when) found the letter that her mother wrote which calls Zuko as only being her half-brother, and it's part of what breaks her mind - she's thinking her mother is sabotaging things to take away her birthright by having her older brother not even be the son of the Fire Lord, etc, etc.
Anyway, she went back to the island she'd come from, and goes into the wilderness, seeking out a spirit which is the Mother of Faces (she's Koh the Face Stealer's mother, and has a cool design). Once per season she'll grant a wish, and she wished for a new face so she could live in peace. Her former fiancee had done this earlier. Looking into her heart, she saw the pain, and the MoF noted that with the face, she could also take away the pain/memories, if she so desired. Zuko's mom takes the bargain, because with the new face she'd probably end up back at the main city looking from afar and being able to do nothing as she wouldn't be recognizable. So she, and her former fiancee, get married and start a family.
Anyway, the arc of the comics is the Gaang (with Azula instead of Toph for Reasons™) finding all of this out, solving a local problem, and getting his mother's memory restored while they sort all this out. It's pretty solid, and even hits on stuff like "I'm sorry I didn't love you enough" anguish when it comes to the moment of weakness giving up the pain.
e: There's actually a lot of neat "weaving into the series" things in it, like the Blue Spirit's mask and something akin to origin stories of a minor character or two. It's worth the read.
A good friend of mine has generally the same TV opinions as me, except he generally doesn't watch animated shows other than stuff like the Simpson's or Futurama.
Well I think maybe quarantine boredom is getting to him cause he watched like 3+ seasons of She-Ra in the last week and seems to be really liking it. Maybe he can ride that wave into finally watching AtLA.
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LasbrookIt takes a lot to make a stewWhen it comes to me and youRegistered Userregular
For anyone who like me decided to sub to CBS All Access to watch Korra after rewatching TLA, as a heads up they're missing episode 8 of season 3 for some reason.
I’d really like some more of this world please. Not even about the next Avatar or whatever; I’d love a one-shot of awkward old man Zuko trying to impart wisdom, or a non-bender martial artist entering a fighting tournament.
Niko woke this morning and before he had even opened his eyes he told me ‘Appa-bending is when you make someone fall over by licking them really hard.’
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Posts
Yeah like the scene early on where Bolin is teaching Korra to do pro-bending and tells her she can’t hunker down like classic earth bending teaches. Instead you have to stay light on your feet until you strike. I think they might have compared it to air bending or water bending? An outgrowth of the mixing of styles that began in TLA.
The Southern Water tribe and backstory could be a voiceover until you meet Aang (the movie tried this but fell flat with all the exposition).
You could combine the Avatar State, Roku, and Spirit World together (the Gaang gets to the Southern Air Temple, Aang sees everyone dead, then 5 minutes into the spirit world talking to Roku and asking why he's floating and freaking out in the physical world).
You could have Zhao and Iroh butting heads early on, but equals under Zuko. Then Zhao does his thing at the end of book 1, but he wouldn't be that major of a character, unfortunately. You could have these two talk about Zuko's scar to cover that. As for Aang leaving, you could hint at it, but not really get into it until Book 2.
Momo, Kyoshi, Omashu, imprisoned earth benders, and Jet would have to all be cut. Don't show any earth bending, unless it's in the opening montage. I don't know how'd you fit the Kyoshi warriors in this, so it might have to be a book 2 thing with the Earth kingdom being a focus.
Aang and Katara learn waterbending through a montage (maybe you see Kyoshi warriors in this montage).
Blue Spirit could fit in, but if you do up Zuko's arc correctly and give it time to breathe, you could do without it (though I absolutely love everything about it in the show).
Coran Attack!
Sounds correct
This reminded me of a thing. I dug up an email I sent to a friend like 10 years, to convince him that he should watch ATLA. Complete with mspaint graph.
Earthbending does have
And firebending
another interesting detail
(season 2 and 3 spoilers)
you can also see the electricity arcing across his chest
really having a normal one over learning that Zuko is voiced by Rufio though
I'm on day of black sun on my fourth watch of the series. This show is fantastic.
The kids weren’t quite as affected as I thought they might be. They mostly watch the show right now for Aang and Appa’s antics (and laugh a lot at Momo) - which is absolutely fine, and it shows how great Avatar is at capturing a wide range of ages. They don’t particularly care for all the politics and Zuko. But I thought some of the story beats of the last couple of episodes might get to them - nope! They enjoyed it and are looking forward to season two but barely reacted to the end there.
I remember Zelda Williams being great as Kuvira as well, but this is gonna be a tough act to follow
Korea S4 spoilers
The Promise: Okay, but leaning too hard on certain dialogue quirks, and it feels like they came up with the concept of the character conflict and forced the characters into it. The actual main plot is pretty solid, though.
The Search: Really good! This is the "finding what happened with Zuko's mom" one, and it's really well done and actually has a decent handling of it!
I can give a summary in spoilers for those curious.
I've got The Rift already, haven't picked up the others yet.
Zuko was gentle and was her favorite as a kid, and she'd been writing letter surreptitiously to her former husband, which were being intercepted, but she realized that. She made a comment in one of them referring to Zuko as "their son" in one of the letters, just as a moment of spite at her husband. He then basically did the abuser tactic of "I'll take it out on him and it's your fault" which is what started that whole thing. After the whole thing with his dad commanding him to kill his firstborn due to Iroh losing his son, she offered to kill the firelord in order to save Zuko, and was exiled, as was described in the show (but it's made explicit that yes, she was the one who killed him). Azula, at some point (but I can't remember when) found the letter that her mother wrote which calls Zuko as only being her half-brother, and it's part of what breaks her mind - she's thinking her mother is sabotaging things to take away her birthright by having her older brother not even be the son of the Fire Lord, etc, etc.
Anyway, she went back to the island she'd come from, and goes into the wilderness, seeking out a spirit which is the Mother of Faces (she's Koh the Face Stealer's mother, and has a cool design). Once per season she'll grant a wish, and she wished for a new face so she could live in peace. Her former fiancee had done this earlier. Looking into her heart, she saw the pain, and the MoF noted that with the face, she could also take away the pain/memories, if she so desired. Zuko's mom takes the bargain, because with the new face she'd probably end up back at the main city looking from afar and being able to do nothing as she wouldn't be recognizable. So she, and her former fiancee, get married and start a family.
Anyway, the arc of the comics is the Gaang (with Azula instead of Toph for Reasons™) finding all of this out, solving a local problem, and getting his mother's memory restored while they sort all this out. It's pretty solid, and even hits on stuff like "I'm sorry I didn't love you enough" anguish when it comes to the moment of weakness giving up the pain.
e: There's actually a lot of neat "weaving into the series" things in it, like the Blue Spirit's mask and something akin to origin stories of a minor character or two. It's worth the read.
I appreciate the uptick in avatar shitposts we've gotten.
Well I think maybe quarantine boredom is getting to him cause he watched like 3+ seasons of She-Ra in the last week and seems to be really liking it. Maybe he can ride that wave into finally watching AtLA.
Steam
It's got some fantastic themes throughout.
the first episode looks like trash
http://www.audioentropy.com/
And basically every panning landscape shot in the first book is obviously fewer frames.
Yup.