Netflix's Last Airbender is a Fundamental Failure

Bumi being bitter over Aang for the past 100 years makes no sense. Aang only found out he was the Avatar the day of the attack. It was not common knowledge the identity of who the Avatar is. As far as Bumi is concerned, he should have thought that his air bender friend Aang perished along with the air nomads 100 years ago.

Zuko being less of a dick in the live action automatically undermines his redemption arc.

Every female character was done so horribly wrong in this show. Each and every one of them is defined by the male characters. Suki needs to change for the sake of Sokka. Katara only acts if Aang or Sokka approve. Azula is portrayed as just as abused and helpless to Ozai as Zuko is. Yue only exists for the sake of Sokka. And Mei and Tai Lee are deprived of any character.

The best thing to come out of this show was the Onion article, “M. Night Shymalan: ‘Well well well, not so easy to make a live action avatar that doesn’t suck shit, huh?’”

I can't believe they turned Sokka into a generic harem anime protagonist.

Funny how they made the show more sexist by making it less sexist

In the words of Bojack Horseman's Todd Chavez... "Well... that went slightly better than the WORST it could've possibly gone. So... yay?"

They made Sokka a Mary Suekka...

Honestly, there was no reason for this show to exist in the first place. If they really wanted to make a live-action Avatar show they should have made a new story for it.

I knew right from when the original creators left “due to creative differences”, just like last time, that this would be a disaster.

Aang doesn’t bend a single drop of water outside of avatar state which grinds my gears

The removal of Jeong Jeong the deserter was frustrating. This episode plays an important role in Aangs arc and establishes his severe mental block for Firebending

Whenever Sokka not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's Sokka?"

My issues with the past avatars is their choice to make them more critical of Aangs actions. I really liked how most of the interactions with them in the og was more of a presentation of what they chose to do in similar situations and the consequences that followed and let Aang combine that with his beliefs to come to a decision. Basically I think they went from advisors to lecturers . Also, at least early on, it made sense to me that Roku was the most prevalent since he was the most recent avatar along with Aang's inexperience with the spirit world.

In the first 20 minutes of the show, they changed the motivation for telling Aang he's the avatar from they just discovered it out so it's time to tell him to they want him to preemptively fight the Fire Nation. A nation of pacifist monks taught never to hurt a fly unilaterally deciding to preemptively attack a nation that (as far as we know) had no prior history of major conflict without even considering diplomacy. That's how I knew they didn't really understand the world.

This show’s character assassination is proof to me that we’ve lost the media literacy war.

What you said about the change to Aang’s reason for getting frozen reminds me of an issue I’ve heard some people have with writing these days, in that some writers seem almost afraid to allow their characters to make genuinely bad or selfish decisions that have lasting consequences. It’s more likable for Aang getting frozen to just be an accident, but it feels far less interesting or character defining. Like you said, the reason the original works so well is it gives Aang a genuinely heavy burden to bear knowing that he ultimately chose to abandon his responsibilities as the Avatar and that directly led to the loss of his people. It also contrasts beautifully with Zuko’s backstory, which was brilliantly revealed in the same episode as Aang’s in the original show. Aang, our hero, ended up where he is at the start of the show because of a selfish decision. Zuko, at the time our antagonist, ended up where he is at the start of the show because of a selfless decision. That contrast really helped add layers to both characters and was only possible because they were willing to let Aang actually have selfishness in his character. Aang is a great person, but even great people can make bad decisions and writers shouldn’t be afraid to let their heroes do bad things sometimes so long as they’re able to balance it out with positive character traits and intentions Or, in the same show, how they remove Sokka’s journey and need to grow past his sexism and overconfidence. Not allowing Sokka to have meaningful flaws like that just outright strips the character of intrigue or depth. And, ironically, almost turn the kyoshi warriors storyline sexist in a way. Instead of Suki humbling Sokka and forcing him to grow, now it’s all about how cool he is and her fawning over him. Ironic how a change that was meant to be made to tone down sexism in the show just ended up turning a great arc into a generic ‘man saves woman with power of love’ story that is arguably WAY more sexist

Ultimately this is a other example of corporations and culture failing to recognize that animation should and can stand on its own merits. I was willing to give the show a chance but it feels like a more watered down product.

Well, this makes me worried about how they're gonna handle Toph...

Azula never needed more than the fact that she was 14 to be sympathetic. I've always thought that the tragedy of her character IS how awful she is. She's a literal child, and the original show does such an excellent job making us forget that that all of the tragedy of her character hits us all at once in unexpected moments. "My own mother thought I was a monster." hits so hard because you aren't expecting it. YOU, the viewer, forgot Azula was a child who struggled to connect with her mother, didn't have someone like Iroh in her life, and who found praise more easily from a man like Ozai. I don't think Ozai even HAD to pit his children against each other to control Azula; he just needed to praise her when Ursa wouldn't.