Netflix’s live-action show compared to the animated original.

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series Avatar the last airbender It has officially arrived. It’s been a long time coming: The show, set in an Asian-inspired fantasy world shaped by the ability to “bend” natural elements, has spawned a sequel series, comics, and a high level of interest in additional stories set in the same universe. In the lead-up to the release of the Netflix adaptation, the show has been intensely scrutinized by fans of the original series, especially after it emerged, two years into its development, that the cartoon’s creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, had moved away. of the project due to creative differences. Fans couldn’t help but see premonitory echoes of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 live-action film adaptation that is widely considered a terrible film.

So how much has the series changed from the original? The answer, in short, is a lot. After all, the Netflix version has only eight episodes so far, compared to the animated series’ 20-episode first season. There are too many differences to list, but let’s look at some of Netflix’s biggest departures from its source material.

The beginning

One of the best aspects of the animated series is how it drops the viewer in the middle of the action, filling in much of the backstory through flashbacks as the story progresses. When we first meet Aang in that version, he is still trapped in the iceberg that Sokka and Katara saved him from. Netflix, on the other hand, streams the events that led to Aang’s (Gordon Cormier) century-long dream, how he became trapped in the ice, and his subsequent emergence thanks to Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio).

The previous avatars

The live-action adaptation takes many liberties in introducing past Avatars from whom Aang seeks help and guidance. Avatar Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman), arguably the most popular previous Avatar among fans, gets a larger role in this narrative when she possesses Aang’s body and helps him defeat the Fire Nation soldiers invading Kyoshi Island. . In the original series, Kyoshi does not take over Aang’s body; instead, it is the previous Firebender Avatar, Roku, in a different scene, who does it. While Netflix Aang has a spiritual conversation with Roku (CS Lee), he later also has an extensive conversation in the spirit world with the past waterbender, Avatar Kuruk (Meegwun Fairbrother). This conversation does not occur in the animated version until well into the series.

omashu

The biggest modification that Netflix makes refers to Omashu, the city of the Earth Kingdom that in the new series becomes the home of all the plots that Netflix can include. The live-action adaptation combines the stories of the handsome anarchist Jet (Sebastian Amoruso), the traitor mechanist (Danny Pudi) who inspires Sokka’s inventor abilities, and the secret tunnels beneath Omashu, bringing together characters, places and events that originally appeared in different points. In the cartoon, Team Avatar meets Jet near a Fire Nation camp, and they don’t meet the Machinist until they arrive at the Northern Air Temple towards the end of the season. As for the tunnels, we don’t see them until season 2 and instead of Sokka and Katara traveling through them through the power of sibling appreciation like they do in the Netflix show, it’s the cartoon Aang and Katara who travel through them under a cloud of romance. (Thankfully, however, the live-action show doesn’t omit the cave-dwelling bards singing “secret tunnel.”)

Bumi’s character undergoes some changes, and Netflix turns the king of Omashu (played by an unrecognizable Utkarsh Ambudkar) into a much more antagonistic figure. In the original, Bumi puts Aang through a series of tests before Aang eventually realizes that the king before him is his old childhood friend, and they part on a lighter note. happy camaraderie. In this new version, Netflix darkens the tone, something that applies to the entire series, showing Bumi deeply resentful of Aang’s absence during the war and leaving it unclear whether the Avatar and the king of Omashu end up on good terms.

koh

Another big difference between the two. AvatarThis is how they use Koh, the face-stealing dark spirit that resides in the spirit world. On the Nickelodeon show, Aang briefly meets Koh (George Takei) in season 1, when he asks Koh for help in saving the Northern Water Tribe. In this new story, Sokka and Katara become trapped in the kingdom of Koh. As with Omashu, Netflix uses this episode as an opportunity to conveniently shoehorn in other major plot points while Sokka and Katara are busy collapsing to the ground, such as Hei Bai’s story, the all-too-brief inclusion of bounty hunter June (Arden Cho), and the vital moment where the Blue Spirit rescues Aang from Commander Zhao’s capture, all of which are events that take place at different points in the original series.

A quick reminder of what was left out

Naturally, the show had to leave many of the fun, extraneous, and episodic side quests on the cutting room floor. Intransigent Avatar Fans might miss the cartoons. crazy herbalist, from whom Aang seeks help when Sokka and Katara fall ill; he warring land tribes that Team Avatar mediates while crossing a canyon; fire master Jeong Jeong, who plays a vital role in Zhao’s backstory; and Bato, a friend of Sokka and Katara’s family who gives them information about the brothers’ missing father. Another major omission is the entirety of Aang’s waterbending, which is an odd choice considering the entire first season is supposed to focus on Aang’s desire to find a waterbending master so he can master the element.

Then there’s the case of Aang and Katara, whose burgeoning pubescent romance has been almost entirely written out of the live-action series so far. We do not understand what was mentioned above. secret tunnel scenehis episode with the fortune teller who foresees his future spousesor any of those smaller moments in the first season where Aang is sighing after Katara.

All of these moments may be minor, but taken together, they solidify the growing friendship between Team Avatar, which needs a solid foundation as the group expands and changes throughout their journey to save the world. It remains to be seen how these changes, among the countless others in the Netflix series, will affect the road ahead for our ragtag team of young people. Warriors.