u/Dim_Dinosaur

So to start off, I did not have Nickelodeon growing up, so I did not watch Avatar when it aired. I did watch the series online in English a few years ago, but only now for the past weeks did I binge through the series in my own language on Netflix. And these are just my general thoughts or things about the Norwegian dub I want to point out.

- Firstly, we only have like three-and-a-half voice actors in Norway, so I noticed a lot of voices reused across characters, and recognized several from other dubbed shows of my childhood. I'm pretty sure Katara is voiced by Princess Bubblegum.

- Iroh changes dialect one third into the series. In Book 1 he speaks standard bookform Norwegian, but then from Book 2 onwards he switches up dialect to Newnorwegian dialect (for context bookform is a more standardized way of writing with Danish influenced grammar, whilst Newnorwegian is more based on local west country dialects and arose in the 1800s to distinguish us from Denmark and Sweden). To give some perspective, imagine Iroh going from his regular English speech to suddendly having a deep Irish accent. And I know its not because of a change in voice actor, it's the same VA throughout the whole series, and in other roles he sticks to the bookform dialect.

- They never seem to settle on any one term to translate "bending" into. It's always translated into a variety of different words, such as: taming, forcing, mastering, bending (why didn't they just stick with what is the literal "to bend" translation???)

- I swear, there were times the audio and visuals were half a beat off-sync

- At times they just didn't translate certain words. For example, the first time we see platypus bears mentioned by name, the platypus part isn't translated at all, even though the Norwegian word (nebbdyr) has just as many syllables and would've been fine. And they DO translate that part later on anyway! Also, the word "healing" is sometimes just not translated, even though it really doesn't resemble its proper Norwegian translation word. And in one particular scene, when Azula and the gang are disguised as Kyoshi warriors and present themselves to the Earth King, Azula straight up speaks English in that scene. But in the flashback in the next episode she speaks Norwegian??? What????

- The pronounciation of Lake Laogai changes like three times in one episode. At one point its said with emphasis on the "Lao" part, at other times its emphasis on the "gai" part, once its even said as "Laogee" for some reason.

- In Norwegian dubs, English writing such as episode titles are always read out loud for the audiences. There were certain episodes where the narrator had to go through so many words that his narration leaks past just the title cards, because my guy is reading up both the books, chapters, and episode names. This is particularly notable in the multipart episodes.

- There's definitely certain acts or moments that don't hold the same weight when dubbed, because the VA gives a different energy in their voice from the original. For example when Sokka injures his foot in the Sozin's Comet episodes, he only sounds mildly inconvenienced like his glass of water got spilled.

- At times, the land of the Southern Water Tribe is directly referred to as Antarctica, and the Northern is of course referred to as the Arctic. I just found that kinda funny, referring to such a distinctly real world place in this fictional world.

- The "my first girlfriend turned into the moon" scene is absolutely ruined in translation. Sokka simply says "my first girlfriend changed." Absolutely awful.

- The Netflix episode titles and descriptions are full of botched translations and doesn't always show the same name as what the narrator says, but at times I feel like the Netflix translation is better because it is perhaps more direct. For example "The Southern Raiders" is translated into "The Southern Plunderers" by Netflix, but in the episode itself they're just referred to as the "southern troops" which feels much less impactful honestly.

Overall though I'd say this has the same quality of dubbing as other cartoons from the time, which is overall positive. It's been ages since I've actually sat down and watched cartoons in my own language, but I never got the impression that Norwegian dubs were bad. Maybe certain voices don't fit as well as the original English ones, maybe certain jokes or beats don't land the same way, but eh what can ya do, things get lost in translation.

What a sight, dayo

I have finally watched Avatar The Last Airbender in my own language. Here's some of my important notes about the Norwegian dub.