Rating: 1.0
Writing this review evoked more emotion than watching this destruction of an animated masterwork. Pragmatically this is a 4/10, but personally it's a solid 1. It doesn't have to be a 1-1 copy but most changes were complete garbage. Way too many to list but: Reversed sibling dynamics: (Azula inferiority arc, Sokka becomes the father figure Katara becomes the insolent child). An accelerated Katara power crawl (Aang told her one thing and she's now a water bending pro), amalgamations of unrelated arcs (ex: Jet in Omashu combined with the Mechanist air temple arc). Kyoshi character destruction (she became a gung-ho "forget your friends and FIGHT" character losing all nuance from the novels). Weird Gyatso power of friendship themes (Aang calms himself down at his grave by remembering their friendship not acknowledging his new support system in Sokka and Katara). Roku character destruction: (his first lines are jokes, Roku is supposed stoic, refined, and compassionate). Sokka's no longer sexist removing a core part of his character development. Idiotic plot points: (Aang going to Roku's temple alone to find a MacGuffin to free his friends, Ozai not knowing about Sozin's comet at the start of the series, Yue breaking off her engagement because she talked to Sokka once. Aang not trying to learn water bending, Kyoshi breaking the power system by showing Aang the future, etc. The show violates the fundamentals of storytelling by telling and not showing (characters go on preachy monologues by either explaining their own character traits, or other characters' traits or repeating the themes of the arc). The only good in this thing is that it looks incredible (for the most part), and made great changes such as removing Aang and Katara's romance, characterizing Ozai, showing the agni kai between Zuko and Ozai, showing the genocide, showing death and blood, introducing more previous avatars, making Zhao a more calculating threat, the 41st division addition to display Zuko's compassion, and making the spirit world disturbing. I don't care to see the remaining seasons so this is a review of season 1 only. They literally had a winning lotto ticket and decided to change the numbers. This could've been another masterwork.
Writing this review evoked more emotion than watching this destruction of an animated masterwork. Pragmatically this is a 4/10, but personally it's a solid 1. It doesn't have to be a 1-1 copy but most changes were complete garbage. Way too many to list but: Reversed sibling dynamics: (Azula inferiority arc, Sokka becomes the father figure Katara becomes the insolent child). An accelerated Katara power crawl (Aang told her one thing and she's now a water bending pro), amalgamations of unrelated arcs (ex: Jet in Omashu combined with the Mechanist air temple arc). Kyoshi character destruction (she became a gung-ho "forget your friends and FIGHT" character losing all nuance from the novels). Weird Gyatso power of friendship themes (Aang calms himself down at his grave by remembering their friendship not acknowledging his new support system in Sokka and Katara). Roku character destruction: (his first lines are jokes, Roku is supposed stoic, refined, and compassionate). Sokka's no longer sexist removing a core part of his character development. Idiotic plot points: (Aang going to Roku's temple alone to find a MacGuffin to free his friends, Ozai not knowing about Sozin's comet at the start of the series, Yue breaking off her engagement because she talked to Sokka once. Aang not trying to learn water bending, Kyoshi breaking the power system by showing Aang the future, etc. The show violates the fundamentals of storytelling by telling and not showing (characters go on preachy monologues by either explaining their own character traits, or other characters' traits or repeating the themes of the arc). The only good in this thing is that it looks incredible (for the most part), and made great changes such as removing Aang and Katara's romance, characterizing Ozai, showing the agni kai between Zuko and Ozai, showing the genocide, showing death and blood, introducing more previous avatars, making Zhao a more calculating threat, the 41st division addition to display Zuko's compassion, and making the spirit world disturbing. I don't care to see the remaining seasons so this is a review of season 1 only. They literally had a winning lotto ticket and decided to change the numbers. This could've been another masterwork.