Netflix’s Avatar: Red Flags of The Last Airbender Live-Action Series

Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino the original creators of ATLA left the show after investing in the development of the show after 2 years. In Entertainment Weekly, the creator mentioned that “”couldn’t control the creative direction of the series,” as part of his open letter which he published on his blog. If this doesn’t scream red flag, I don’t know what is.

However, DiMartino was definitely optimistic about the Netflix production as he mentioned “It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying.” but “it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.”

Based on this information, fans were shocked because without the original creators of the show, the show might turn out to be Shyamalan’s movie! Just praying they would not jeopardize the pronunciation of their names (aka aang an oong..)

The Last Airbender. Cr. Robert Falconer/Netflix © 2023

Screenrant has recently published an article regarding how our beloved main protagonist character will change indefinitely! Look at Albert Kim’s full response to this:

” I think the state of the world and the stakes of the world are still the same. So we decided to make Aang’s narrative drive a little clearer. In the first season of the animated series, he’s kind of going from place to place looking for adventures. He even says, “First, we’ve got to go and ride the elephant koi.” It’s a little looser as befits a cartoon. We needed to make sure that he had that drive from the start. And so, that’s a change that we made. We essentially give him this vision of what’s going to happen and he says, “I have to get to the Northern Water Tribe to stop this from happening.” That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, “Let’s make a detour and go ride the elephant koi,” that type of thing. So that’s something, again, that’s part of the process of going from a Nickelodeon cartoon to a Netflix serialized drama.“                         Albert Kim

Shocking right?
After hearing Kim statements about the change of character, I went looking for other fans who share the same disappointment.

I found a Reddit sub that was created about 2 days ago: and some reddit comments had valid arguments!

throwaway1122 said “The more I hear about the writing direction this show is taking, the more I feel my skepticism was completely valid. There’s a lot to get wrong and it looks less and less promising every time the directors open their mouths”

Another reddit andrewdriod said “I’m sorry, but this take of the director is very easy to dislike. Pressing Aang to do his duties and remove these episodes/scenes where he is just pressing to have fun and act like a kid is an honest tell that the director does not understand the character at all. The whole reason Aang was in the iceberg was because he was running from his duties as the avatar. After hearing this I have very little faith the show is going to be good in the slightest”

I resonate with the view that taking the ‘goofiness’ out of Aang will indefinitely hurt the show! In my opinion, the director failed to see the potential character development of Aang and fail to see Aang’s essence! (his lightheartedness and goofiness). To echo Katara word’s “We‘ve been through so many things together. And I’ve seen you grow up so much. You‘re not that little goofy kid I found in the iceberg anymore.” Also Aang’s goofiness makes the series more light-hearted and enjoyable to watch. Honestly, I am disappointed with this change!

Series will cut out “how sexist Sokka was“

Iam Ousley, plays Sokka in Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender, Credits to Netflix

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kiawentiio, the actress portraying Sokka’s sister, Katara, expressed her thoughts on the character’s portrayal. She mentioned, “I believe we have also eliminated the element of Sokka’s sexism. In the original show, there were several moments that were questionable.”

Ian Ousley – who plays Sokka in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation said that “Yeah, totally. There are things that were redirected just because it might play a little differently [in live action].”

There was only one question that rang in my head! WHY NETFLIX?

Yes, Sokka was sexist in the initial episodes of Book 1, but you have to watch the animated series to realize, that every time he made a sexist comment he was retorted by Katara and Suki. Many times in the series, other female characters put Sokka in his place, which became his main character development!

Sokka struggled with his identity and what it means to be a man which has contributed to his sexist comments. However, throughout the series, we see how his perception of masculinity changes through the influence of strong female characters. Book 3 Sokka is not the same as Book 1 Sokka. By removing this character arc, the character will fall flat!

ATLA presents a view that a flawed character like Sokka is capable of change. Take a look at the video below really captured that why Sokka as a sexist should not be changed!

Netflix’s ATLA Changes The Original Show’s Timeline

Credits to Netflix

Kim confirmed the Netflix adaptation will change a major plot point of the animated series: The Sozin’s Comet! Look at Kim full response:

“All three seasons of the animated series essentially take place in the course of one calendar year. There was no way we could do that. So we had to design this first season, especially, to accommodate the possibility of some time elapsing between the first and the second season.” The comet was their ticking clock. We removed that particular ticking clock from our show for now because we couldn’t know exactly how old our actors would be for the subsequent seasons. We definitely thought about that going into season 1 so that we can accommodate for puberty, adolescence, time passing — all of those fun things that happen to real-life human beings that don’t happen to animated characters.” Albert Kim

In the original animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sozin’s Comet comes every 100 years, bestowing all fire-benders with incredible power such “power of 10,000 suns”. In the series, Ozai’s grandfather Sozin, took the opportunity to use this incredible power to wipe out the whole Air-nation showing how powerful the comet is!

Avatar Roku, the avatar before Aang, in the animated series,, warns Aang to defeat the Firelord Ozai before the Comet comes. In book 3, Zuko shared to the Avatat team that Firelord Ozai planned to use Sozin’s Comet to wipe out the Earth Kingdom.

This shows that the Sozin Comet is extremely important to Aang: as it (1) took away the air-nation (why he is the last airbender) and (2) creates a certain urgency in Aang to defeat the firelord!

Taking out the Sozin comet leaves many gaps within the story. It would compromise important episodes such as the Winter Solstice in Book 1. It would be better to extend the Sozin’s comet from 1 year to 2-3 years which will ultimately account for the ages of the Netflix actors.

I just wonder what is the implication of this change as this would incredibly alter the show’s narrative.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, this shows that the creators of Netflix Avatar do not know their characters and neither do they appreciate the source material. There are a lot of red flags before even the show premieres and I hope they will not make the same mistakes as the previous movies! As 22 Feb approaches, we can only pray that it is not as terrible as Shyamalan’s movie. What are your thoughts?