u/Poweredkingbear

Wanna know what pisses me off? A bunch of grown ass adults in their late 20s fully incapable of deciphering language and meaning. Words can have multiple meanings and connotations but for Avatar fans words don't have multiple meanings at all which I find to be embarrassing. There’s no way people lost it over Aang saying “How can you bend something you can’t see?”, the blindness instructor saying that he wants blind people to see themselves in Toph and Toph being able to read and write. 

Like the first example because Aang is clearly talking about wanting to bend something or someone in his line of sight ,but for some reason a lot of folks lost it over him using the word “see” while being an airbender because some smartass will tell you that you can’t see air. If they actually managed to use their brain for once then they could have atleast realized that the word “see” literally has multiple meanings and people use that word for different reasons. The same way people use “I see your point” when it comes to an opinion and an opinion is something you can’t physically see or touch. Here’s the issue I shouldn't even have to explain this crap because it’s something people have to learn in middle school.

The people having an issue with Toph knowing how to read and write genuinely makes my blood boil. All because of a specific line of dialogue in book 3 where Katara told Aang and Sokka that Toph can’t write and a different scene of Toph telling Sokka that she’s blind after they showed her the wanted poster. Like it’s pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that Toph can’t read and write as in she can’t read and write like how people naturally write and read on a piece of paper written with an ink. I feel dumb to even bother explaining this because it’s obvious basic common sense. It's even worse when I saw grown ass Youtubers in their late 20s and who have a full time career being unable to comprehend this simple concept. I get being a fan of the show and all that ,but the way people treat the animated series almost like a religious holy book akin to the Bible is just odd. Like the idea of braille and raised letters in the world of Avatar is treated almost too heretical to even be included in the live action series and it genuinely pisses them off for some reason. 

At this point it isn’t even media literacy anymore ,but language and literacy being absolutely cooked. I could understand why a lot of streaming services had to dumb down their dialogue because the audience themselves aren't getting smarter at all.

First of all the complaints are just ludicrous because the overall premise of Katara protecting those who need to be protected is still there. The Earth Kingdom citizens she was primarily protecting were the disenfranchised and neglected people who lived within the lower ring of Ba Sing Se which is the exact same context like in the original ,but in a different nation. Like I’m not sure why trying to protect them is invalid in terms of Katara’s characterization? No one is running around calling Batman or Spiderman useless because the people they’re protecting are primarily the same folks who would end up supporting them anyways. 

Some people would argue “Well the reason why the original is so amazing is because she’s protecting the people who would otherwise harm her if they ever discover that she’s a water bender”. The problem is that live action Katara did exactly that by protecting Fire Nation immigrants and defectors. Sure the context of them being devout citizens of the Fire Nation like in the animated series isn’t in the live action ,but the vast majority of them in the live action actually had blood on their hands because many of them were Fire Nation soldiers who helped attacked Ba Sing Se such as Jeong Jeong and they defected the Fire Nation when the war went haywire. 

Which is interesting because the vast majority of people who were complaining about NATLA “removing” Katara’s activism are self proclaimed progressives who love and support immigrants as much as possible by protecting them from racists. They’re the first one to defend muslim immigrants because of how people think they’re terrorists for their religious affiliation. The people who are downplaying Katara’s activism in protecting Fire Nation immigrants and defectors are just being dumb becaue they would end up praising someone who defends Immigrants in real life anyways. You could even argue that the Fire Nation defectors that Katara is protecting from Jet are at least partially responsible because many of them were ex fire nation soldiers who had blood on their hands. 

The complaint is even more ludicrous because the exact same premise of Katara defending fire nation citizens who would otherwise murder her because of their loyalty to the fire nation is going to happen anyways in season 3 with her Bloodbending arc with Hama. All of these whining just to have the exact same thing to be shown anyways in season 3. 

For some reason the Duffers are fully incapable of finding a way to make a time jump make completely sense. They literally have years to come up with an idea to solve the actors growing up and nothing in those years have ever crossed their mind. Wanna know what would really happen if the Duffer brothers use a single of their braincel to problem solve this issue? Uuum I don't know how about we just move the characters to Chicago, Illinois after what happened to Hawkins at the end of season 4 ? Nobody in the writing room has ever thought or bring up that idea at all which I find to be embarrasing. Since none of them brought up that idea in the writers room they instead settled with the decision to forced the characters to reside within Hawkins and put a metallic bandaid over the cracks from the upside down which is just a monumentally stupid decision.

If the writers actually thought about the idea of moving the characters and the civilians out of Hawkins to Chicago then the time jump will actually make sense. The Gang struggling to find Vecna wasn't because he was hiding in Dimension X or something ,but because Hawkins got turned into a nightmarish wasteland overrunned with Demogorgons and other upside down residents. Wanna have the military involved? have them surround Hawkins to stop the creatures from breaking out of the place. Like the Duffers can literally still preserved the ending of El sacrificing herself to save her friends and family by having the military outside of the Hawkin's perimeters chase after her or something.

Instead of having the final battle in the Dimension X with the awful CGI they could instead have the final battle on the Upside down with Vecna which would be absolutely perfect. They could even have the final battle on the Hawkin's lab by having the Mind Flayer go after that building and have the Party shoot their weapons at that thing while they're hiding inside of the building.

One simple writing decision and the Duffers absolutely blew it. I don't think they need to problem solve it either because the solution was already right there in season 2 when Eleven moved to Chicago ,Illinois to try to find her mom. I have no idea why that never crossed their minds at all which I find to be buffling.

The writers and the producers did a spectacular job in the crystal catacombs scene because the vast majority of people loved that scene. One of the great thing about that scene in the live action is that both Kiawentiio and Dallas Liu were pushed to their fullest potential as an actor. The way the writers improvised on the dialogue and how the characters interact between each other from the original to give the scene even more depth gave both actors alot of material to work with.

At the same time I have some criticisms. I think the writers made a big mistake of trying to replicate the original scene as much as possible to the point where they end up not pushing Kiawentiio to her acting potential way further than before because they obscured her face by having her turn around to cry in order to prioritize Dallas Liu’s acting even thou Kiawentiio is literally doing all the emotional heavy lifting in that particular scene. That particular moment is a also 1:1 replica from the original and that’s the reason why it’s a problem. They could have reimagined that scene where instead of having the perspective on Zuko’s face we instead prioritize Katara’s face and have the camera in front of Kiawentiio to see her cry instead. Even the dialogue too in my opinion because the part where Katara said “Me personally” just never sat with me even in the original because she literally mentioned herself twice in the same sentence. If the live action removed that particular dialogue or modified it I think her live action dialogue would flow much better than the original.

I'm really excited to see season 3 because Kiawentiio has alot of material to work with and it's her season to really lock in. Like fully unleashing her role as Ka Kwwet in Anne with an E type of lock in. I think the only way that could happen if the writers and the producers continued what they were doing from that crystal catacombs scene and to go all the way through with changing things to accommodate the live action format. My greatest fear has to be adapting the Southern Raiders episode because there are so many ways for that scene to go right and for it to go wrong. Like it’s kinda difficult already to try to imagine that scene in live action because in the original that scene of Katara almost killing Yonrha because she chose forgiveness was mainly carried by the context of the scene and the great voice acting. They can truly elevate that scene in the live action by prioritizing the things that made the crystal catacomb scene so damn amazing and also prioritizing the live action format which is dependent on physical acting.

Imagine that scene of Katara and Yon Rha reimagined in a way that's way longer than the original ,but also more personal. Have Katara use blood bending on Yon Rah to drag him all over the mud while he's screaming and crying. They still can recreate that scene of Katara stopping the rain ,but instead of making multiple ice projectiles to shoot at Yon Rah how about she continued to let the rain go by in order to use her blood bending on him. Make it close and personal to see more of Kiawentiio's face. Have Kiawentiio depict Katara in her lowest point where rage and hatred is finally consuming her before deciding to choose forgiveness. I really do believe that Kiawentiio is capable of depicting that internal struggle where she goes from her boiling rage into regretful tearful sorrow and if she does she would basically gives that scene even more depth than the original and might even give her an emmy worthy scene or something. If season 3 couldn't atleast capture the spirit of what I'm talking about then that would be a disservice to Kiawentiio because being 1:1 with the original scene won't be an emmy worthy scene at all even if you recasted her with Mae Whitman.

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Yeah I think we're getting The Lion Turtle since the show has been hinting on the Lion Turtle and one of the alleged leaked titles for episode 6 in season 3 is named "The Tale of two islands". The Lion Turtle shouldn’t necessarily be removed ,but it needs alot of tweaking in order to make the problem less distracting like in the original. 

I really do think one of the best ways to fix the issue with the deus ex machina issue from the original is by having Aang go through a challenge that was set up by the Lion Turtle before being rewarded with the energy bending ability after passing the tests. Remember that part in the final fight when the Lion turtle told Aang that using the energy bending comes at a cost where using it on someone will have a high chance of corrupting the user and destroying them? How about we move that around and reuse that moment to instead challenge Aang if he's worthy of getting the energy bending

Imagine Aang in Ember Island panicking because he discovered that the Gaang was missing and there was a fire nation trail around him. Then he saw that the trail was leading to a different island so Aang decided to swim over in that place to investigate further. When he's finally on the island, that's when he discovers that Ozai and his soldiers have rounded up the Gaang and killed them all. At this moment Aang is finally at his lowest. Ozai mocks and belittles Aang. Rage and sorrow was building up on Aang. When Ozai was finally done with his speech that’s when he decided to tell Aang that the time of the Avatar is over and decided to shoot Aang with his lightning before Aang was able to capture it and that moment basically recreates that scene from the original when Aang redirected the lighting and hesitated for a bit to shoot Ozai before shooting the lightning out to the sky to avoid killing him. That moment on Ozai and his soldiers basically froze up before vanishing into thin air. That’s when The Lion Turtle revealed themselves to Aang and told Aang that whatever that happened on this island was all a test by The Lion Turtle. They congratulated Aang and they told him that his refusal to give in to his worst impulses even at his worst will be rewarded with an energy bending ability that would allow Aang to take away Ozai’s powers. After receiving the ability Aang woke up in a beach surrounded by the Gaang because it turned out that he sleep walked and laid on the beach at the middle of the night.

Like if the season 3 writers did something similar to what I wrote then the issue with the Lion Turtle will be fixed and the finale will be perfect.

I think episode 7 is one of the best examples that I can think of where the writers didn’t go all the way in with changing things ,but decided to keep things 1:1 as much as possible. The main Crystal Cave fight is one of the best examples where instead of adding anything new to the fight the writers decided to recreate the original 1:1 as much as possible.

One of my main issues is that yes they stuck pretty closely to how the characters fought in the Crystal Cave ,but the issue is that it felt redundant. There’s alot of great callbacks to the original like when Katara did her octopus waterbend and Zuko’s fire whip ,but the issue is that the show is trying to be its own thing and then trying to be a 1:1 felt kinda contradictory. Katara doing her octo water bend is cool and all just like in the original ,but wanna know what would be cooler? Having Katara recreate the ice projectile technique in the very first minutes of episode 1 in season 2. That technique represents the best of both worlds because it's both fantastical and grounded. I don’t want to say “realistic” because nothing about the world of Avatar is realistic ,but what I’m trying to say is that the technique better represents NATLA’s more grounded and fantastical approach to retelling ATLA. Not only that ,but it’s way faster and more effective than the octo waterbend. Like if the writers doubled  down on being different then we would have gotten a much more unique fight scenes between the characters in the main crystal cave fight instead of copying the original as much as possible. The addition of the fight scene between Zuko and Azula including the fight scene between Aang and Azula in the crystal cave has got to be one of the best additions in the finale because they’re actually new scenes that everyone can enjoy.

Also the scene between Katara and Zuko in their crystal cave prison is also another issue where the writers tried to recreate the original scene as much as possible ,but they can’t seem to decide if they wanted to make it different or not. The added dialogue to Katara and Zuko is incredibly amazing and we need more of that ,but what I find to be annoying is when the writers decided to obscure Kiawentiio’s face when she was crying by not showing her face because they were trying to replicate the scene from the original when Katara turned away from Zuko and we only saw her back. Like first of all you’re trying to make a live action adaptation where the main selling point is see the genuine human reaction from the actors so I’m not sure why would you obscure the actor’s face in the first placed. Like you can still have Katara turn away from Zuko and have the camera in front of Kiawentiio to see her reaction. Kiawentiio is fully capable of crying and being sad. If you watched her act in other shows you would understand what I'm talking about.

I seriusly hope season 3 capture the right balance.

Wanna know why I love this season so much? It actually felt like a great retelling of the same story that we have seen before. Which is funny because people are acting like this hasn't been done before even thou superhero movies have been doing that for decades pretty successfully (Ex: Raimi's Spiderman, Nolan's Batman,etc).

I think it's even comparable to The Jungle Book movie from 2016 where instead of doing a 1:1 recreation of the original movie like what The Lion King or How to Train Your Dragon did with their live action adaptation they instead took the premise of the story and made their own retelling that's completely distinct from the original movie and it actually felt fresh. The original still exists so making a fresh new retelling doesn’t erase that at all. 

The best example from season 2 that I actually loved is how the scene in the crystal cave was retold. Instead of Aang abandoning cosmic energy to save Katara he instead was willing to go to the Avatar state to save the person he loves the most at the cost of abandoning the values that he holds unto dearly. Aang literally talked to Sokka about how painful and distressing it was to have the water spirit control him to kill and destroy those fire nation invaders because it goes against everything that Aang and the Air nomads stood for about not killing anyone. Many of the fans are so damn blinded by nostalgia that they couldn’t even see that the context is practically the same even when the reasoning is different. Even then having Aang in his Avatar state actually fight back before being shot by Azula is a great change on its own way. Aang resisted his Avatar state when they almost killed Azula and that decision ended up risking not only his  own life ,but the faith of the world.  Like that's still Aang the pacifists through and through and that context will obviously become important in season 3.

To be honest there are some parts from the show that felt kind of distracting. The show isn't perfect and there are some things that they really need to improve on.

Like the Loser's Club and their dynamic with each other for example because the show really wanted you to believe that the main group are really close friends ,but the main problem is that the vast majority of them are just bickering with each other. Veronica literally spent the entire show just bickering and chastising Lilly and Marge. Even then they basically have their separate friend group. Rich and Will are really close with each other, so does Lilly and Marge with each other. Veronica and Will are a couple so of course they have chemistry. Rich and Marge are also a couple so they're also closed. The issue is that I never get a sense that the main group actually had an actual chemistry. So what's the relationship and dynamic Veronica has with Marge, Rich and Lilly? Like remotely nothing all because she spent the entire show just bickering with Lilly and Marge. Was Lilly even close with Rich and Will at all? Not remotely at all because she barely interacted with them. The main issue is that they never felt like a true friend group at all compared to the original Loser's Club. My advice to Andy Muschietti is to rewatch Stand by Me. Like I know he did an amazing job with the dynamic between the original Loser's Club ,but I want him to get back to the basics. He needs to switch up the character interactions so that the group will actually feel like an actual friend group instead of a 3 separate friend group within a larger friend group.

I also think Andy also needs to moderate the use of CGI and use more practical because the cemetery scene was just awful to look at. I think one of the best sequence from the entire show has to be the Veronica's Momster sequence because combination between the use of practical sets and CGI was smooth as fuck. Everything about it was just damn amazing to look at. They used CGI for some things that practical sets can't be replicated with physical sets and they used practical sets for things that they can easily do without relying on CGI. If they did the same thing for the Pickle Monster like using CGI for his transformation sequence ,but used practical sets and makeup when he's fully formed then the criticism about the Pickle Monster won’t be as common. Like cmon there was no reason at all to use CGI for the Pickle Monster face inside the Pickle Jar. They could have used a prosthetic head inside a hollow jar and just have the glass  around it to be hollow enough to fill it with pickle juice to create an illusion that a human head is indeed inside a filled Pickle Jar. There are so many creative ways to combine practical sets and CGI ,but Andy never seemed to utilize it and was completely dependent on the CGI for the vast majority of the time. Like the ghost kids had no reason at all to be CGI and funny enough they actually filmed the actor who played Teddy doing the stunt on that exact same scene while he was being filmed ,but Andy decided to just replace him with CGI completely. Also they were on the actual cemetary too ,but he decided to replace it with a CGI landscape for some reason. Like if he doesn't have the budget to create that sequence then just rewrite the entire damn scene to be more compatible with the budget.

If Andy improves on those two things then season 2 will be alot better. Probably way better than season 1 even thou I actually loved season 1 despite its flaws.