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aangspocket · 15 days

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1st thought: NATLA vs ATLA's pacing, plot-line, characterization...

Hello everyone, For my first post, I’d like to start with NATLA & ATLA storytelling format differences which plays a huge part for each counterpart’s story direction. Also, I’m not a native english speaker so apologies in advance for grammatical errors!

I grew up watching the show since I was young and every year I do a re-watch, I’m now working in the entertainment industry and had experiences in script writing for comics. My first impression of the live action show was just okay because I binged it till 4 a.m(never again), after another rewatch I fell in love with the show and came to appreciate it much more. It’s true that the only way to truly enjoy it is to judge the show on its own merit but I also agree it's impossible not to compare with the OG show, being an amazing animated show ever made. The LA show isn’t perfect, but it was very fun and just everything I could ever asked for. I’m so happy I got to watch ATLA again with a fresh mind! I can accept most of the changes they made and even prefer the live action’s version, unfortunately the script and directions for many scenes could be a LOT better. I'm glad that the casts were outstanding and very likeable (in and outside the show), especially for my top 2 favourite characters from the OG show, Aang and Katara.

Gordon Cormier was able to embody such a complex character as Aang, having to act as the main character (in a huge high budget show), a fun-loving demigod with incredible responsibilities, while being the only survivor of a genocide, is not an easy feat especially for a child actor, little dude did his own stunts! He even acted the mocap(motion capture) expressions for his digital double, mind you.. He was 12 years old!

Kiawentiio is an excellent indigenous actress, Katara characterization in NATLA is different from the OG show, instead of starting off as the sassy-strong willed Katara that we were familiar of, NATLA Katara started kinda timid+wooden, sulky, shy but hopeful, and later on as the story progresses, we can see her becoming more brave, and confident, and even more better.. Her bending ability progression is shown gradually alongside her confidence! To put it simply, NATLA Katara is given an arc to grow. And I found myself rooting for her even more (because I know what she will be in upcoming seasons).

Unfortunately, NATLA Aang & Katara didn’t get enough praise & love that they deserved, this is due to the changes on their characterization that felt unfamiliar to majority of audiences which are the OG show watchers.

Let’s talk about the main reason why the main GAang (and a lot of other characters, actually) character development plotline ( in season 1) changed in this adaptation; the changing of narrative format, adapting cartoon show to a live action drama.

Many would argue that NATLA has similar total running time with ATLA(the OG animated show) “then why can’t they do the pacing like the OG show?” I think it’s impossible to compare the two (plotline wise) as both have different episodes format and mediums. NATLA has 8 episodes with 1 hour~45 minutes long running time for each episode, whereas ATLA book 1 has 2 episodes with 20 minutes running time for each episode. In ATLA the audiences are given time to breathe for each episode due to short running time, and even shown Katara’s monologue in the beginning of all episodes for a fresh start, therefore episodic format works well for ATLA. In NATLA the show is 45mins~1 hour long with no breaks and no intro monologue (except for episode 1) so the episode runs full stop. And because it's an 1 hour show, the storyline should have a clear purpose & tension to make the audiences emotionally invest with the story. The episode narrative format follows a Three-arc structure(inciting incident->midpoint->climax followed by aftermath) each episode is always high tension, has a main theme + lesson that ties multiple plotlines all together cohesively and continuity with the next episodes, which is why it's hard to show the GAang taking a lot of detours in every episodes as it doesn't help much with the tone and narrative direction of the story. With these two formats in mind, many things could fall flat if they had adapted ATLA’s plotlines 1:1 to NATLA. The biggest aspect is : characterization. Let’s be real, it's live action show.. we're seeing actual children, actual humans emoting, actual 12 years old getting attacked by fire blasts.. It would feel jarring to see Aang riding Elephant koi minutes after he found out his whole family was brutally killed, It would make sense to see him feeling guilty and not letting Katara (and sokka) to fight alongside him in ep 7 after he accidentally brought them to spirit world and almost got them killed in ep 5(but I’m glad Aang comes to terms with it!), also if sokka’s (blatant) sexism is solved within 1 episode (in kiyoshi island which is only the 2nd episode) it wouldn’t feel as rewarding because it's solved too early (also the sexisms wouldn’t land well in live action..could feel too forced or.. cringe).

When people complained that the characters personalities changed, I think many people mistaken it for the tone of the show. NATLA did very well on capturing the horror of a genocide and 100 years of war, the situation feels more dangerous, fire can actually burn you to crisp and not only knocking you back like the OG show portrayed (I understand it’s a show for kids). If the tone of the story changed, of course the many aspects would change as well. It’s kinda sad because the heart of ATLA is these three kids doing side quests with jokes, goofing around while being the hero in the midst of 100 years of war... which unfortunately for the most parts, those moments are taken out in NATLA(glad it's mentioned in the background!). But again, like what i wrote in previous paragraph, due to running time and episode format, this plotline has to change.

Many people feel dissatisfied about the characterization for the GAang, and felt the Fire Nation squad’s development are better written, while I agree that the show felt more favourable towards the FN characters but this is due to the fact that The Fire Nation squad characterization and development are more or less the same as the OG show, they feel more familiar to us and even Azula & Ozai are more fleshed out in NATLA, Whereas our main 3 characters personalities changed quite a lot, cartoon gags won't work well in live action adaptations, the trio mostly shown doing side quests that felt like main quests (less goofing around) and are given their own arcs that’s slightly different than their OG show counterparts. So naturally as an OG show audience(mind you, many of us have watched the show 20x+ probably) watching NATLA’s GAang would feel a bit jarring, like they don’t look familiar, they felt…wrong. But I disagree. Do note that our main 3 character developments are more subtle than the Fire Nation squad, which is why I think they're easily overlooked by the majority of audiences(hence the endless wrong takes people have online). I’d say, the Fire Nation squad(especially Zuko) development is more ‘telling’ than the main GAang in both ATLA and NATLA, it’s more easy to ‘see’ an antagonist turning into a hero whereas the main GAang roles are the same throughout 3 seasons, their developments happened ‘internally’ (psychologically). I wholeheartedly agree that book 1 episodic format is more favourable towards OG GAang dynamics, therefore I can see why the NATLA writing team changed their character development direction. Tl;dr despite its changes, I love the main 3 character arcs in NATLA as we can see their character development clearly;

Aang actually seems very.. very.. guilty and more responsible for being the Avatar although he lacks confidence due to his grief. I love how his ‘running away’ from his duties is basically him asking past avatars to take over his bodies to fight on his behalf, like he keeps saying ‘I’m the avatar, I have to do this’ but when he actually has to face the reality he just stutters and asks for backup from past avatars and even giving away his body to the ocean spirit. And I really like that he feels very guilty of the death of his family to the point that he cannot defend himself and he just accepts everyone's blame for running away (although it’s not true). I also don't see the problem with Aang not running away but instead taking a short walk(or fly) with Appa.. the weight of guilt is still the same, if anything.. it's more depressing because he didn't intend to run away.. he was just trying to mentally prepare himself to take on the role, also Aang grew up in a loving peaceful and supportive environment.. with a mentor like Gyatso, I don't think Aang would take such a daring decision to run away. There are so many details that I really like about his 'new approach' of characterization throughout the season. I'll elaborate more separately in another post (same goes for Katara and Sokka).

Katara is tenacious and hopeful but she’s carrying a huge guilt of her mother’s death which blocks her bending skill from developing and later on able to overcome it. Honestly, seeing her new character arc feels more rewarding! also her bending ability development feels more natural than the OG show, and it’s very nice to see that she’s also very creative at it! imitating other bender movements, that’s a sign of a master. And although many people dislike the idea of her becoming a master despite not having a proper education, I love the fact that she’s able to achieve it by her own effort, and I think the writers intended to do this so Aang can solely practise water bending with Katara, Katara probably will play a huge part in shaping Aang as the Avatar (I’m internally screaming, I will elaborate more in future posts)

Sokka is no longer ‘sexist’, but his ‘sexism’ translates in different form, just not verbally as the OG show. He's a little cocky(and judgemental) in the beginning because he’s carrying this huge responsibilities (that he wasn’t ready to take) he’s trying to look strong (no time to grief unlike Katara, he has to step up as the big brother) and finally learns that sometimes just being present with someone who needs him, physically (not just fighting like how SWT tribe leaders defines leadership value, at least the way he sees it in past memory scene during ep 5) is also as valuable (I’m happy that his main character development isn’t from him being sexist).

Going forward, from the trio last scene in ep 8, I believe we will see the trio that we know of, joyful but wise Avatar Aang, brave and strong but very caring Katara, supportive-charismatic leader Sokka.

Kataang has always been my favourite pair from the OG series. I'm a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, I find this relationship to be very honest and grounding. There's no better lover than your own best friend, your own person. the pacing that the OG series had, helped a lot in building Kataang’s relationship growth(also the whole team), It flows naturally and gradually, the friends-to-lovers trope is explored really well in book 1, which is possible because book 1 episodic format. In NATLA, I am glad to see that Aang didn't fall in love with Katara right after he wakes up, Katara didn't even pull Aang down during avatar state in Southern Air Temple(I’m glad it was Gyatso, makes soo much sense honestly), and many many scenes from the OG show that got removed (Aang showing off his skill and making Katara jealous in Kiyoshi island for instance) nonetheless I was really really happy to see hints here and there and it finally pays off when Katara pull him out from his avatar state in NWT (I will elaborate more in another post) I’m so EXCITED to see slow burn KatAang, I have predictions of what their relationships development could look like in upcoming seasons, i’m hopeful that the writers can elevate their relationship dynamics better than the OG show, and since we’re getting teenager Aang & Katara, I’m very very excited to see more mature approach of their relationship growth.

Closing thoughts, ATLA was amazing but you see.. nothing is perfect in this world, there's always room for improvements, book 1 felt like the creators weren’t sure whether the audiences would like to see more and they were trying to play it safe because they knew how heavy the show would be later on but at the same time it was a NickToons show, fortunately this is NATLA’s advantage over ATLA, since the show runners are aware of the whole storyline, able to raise the rating to PG-13(iirc) + with the episode count and running time, they were able to push back and pull in components from different seasons, for instance they pull in Ozai & Azula (because there might be not enough time to flesh out both of them in later seasons & to enhance the tension because they pull out the comet plotline due to irl actors aging) and push back the trio's characterization by giving them starting arcs to grow as our heroes.

There are so many things that I appreciated about NATLA, it’s so sad to see the a lot of people refusing to accept the changes and rejects the potential. Sure the scripts could be a LOT better, but if you see the nuances and details that they added to strengthen the plot-line you’d be surprised how well thought out the show is.

End of thread, thanks for reading this long ass thread! I’m open to any discussions, suggestions and opinions! See you all in my next post!

P.S i appreciate the follows, reblogs and love! also i cant seem to post a reply, hopefully this issue will be solved soon

#aangspocket yapping #natla positivity #natla appreciation #gordon cormier #aang #avatar aang #kiawentiio #katara #ian ousley #sokka #atla #netflix avatar #avatar netflix #avatar the last airbender #kataang #pro kataang #pro natla

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