If you are also a big fan of Avatar: the Last Airbender you might have heard that Netflix is planning on making a live-action re-make. Oh, but don’t get too excited, the few details Netflix has shared have already proven they intend to take the story down a far different path.
The biggest leak, is that Netflix is planning on changing the ages of some characters. Not a big deal, right? Well, it might be a bigger deal than you think. First of all, they have said that they are going to change the ages of Katara and Sokka and change their birth order, making Katara the oldest. It was later said that she would not only be older than her brother but also her love interest as well. Why would they do that? Well, I’ll get to that theory in just a minute, but first let’s talk about the problems in doing this.
The first problem this is going to present is it could damage the relationship between Katara and Sokka. Though Katara was always the “mother figure” of the story, and the role of older sister won’t be too much of a change for her, I feel like the decision will ultimately damage her and Sokka’s relationship. And while we’re on the topic of Sokka, I want to bring up his relationships throughout the series. He’s going to be 14, and that’s quite young, so should we expect that his relationship with Suki will change? And while in Hollywood there is no age too young for romance, they had a very mature relationship that’s not appropriate for 14-year-olds.
Not to mention Sokka’s relationship with Yue which played an important part in Sokka’s character. Sokka and Yue’s relationship is almost more important than Sokka and Katara. This relationship this was very important for Sokka on so many levels. The first being that he shared his first kiss with Yue. This really marked Sokka as the older sibling. She was his first girlfriend and his first love. She ment a lot to him. She also comes up in conversation throughout the next two seasons and becomes a stumbling-block for Sokka and Suki’s relationship. And we know Yue will be in the series because she sacrificed herself to save the Northern Water Tribe in the end of the first season which is not something you can simply cut out.
I’ll be talking more about Sokka and Yue in the future because there’s a lot to it and I don’t have time to discuss all the details, but I do think it’s an important relationship that deserves a closer look.
And speaking of relationships, with the changes in age we could also expect that Katara and Aang will not be a ‘thing’ since they are making Katara older than Aang by about four years. This is a problem especially because Aang and Katara’s relationship played a key role in the series and in Aang’s character arc. I can not see the series going on without that vital relationship.
The only bright side to Katara being older (and I don’t really consider this a bright side at all) is that it leaves the room for the Katara and Zuko ship, which is a controversial topic in the fan base, but if Katara is older than Sokka that would put her roughly around the same age Zuko. I think it’s a perfectly logical to expect “Zutara” in the live action series, especially considering this is the most popular ship among fans so it really wouldn’t surprise me.
I just hate it when production companies play to their fans wishes and fanfics such as Marvel or Star Wars(don’t get me started about Rise of Skywalker!)
They haven’t even cast the series and already the creative team has split up. The executive producers who worked on the original Avatar: The Last Airbender team has left Netflix due to “creative differences.” They have not elaborated on what creative differences they were referring to, but I’m getting red flags right there. The creative team from the original series who said that they were “excited to honor original series” has left Netflix’s Operation because of “creative differences.”
Netflix has a bad reputation when it comes to remakes and adaptions, so I have very little faith in this series. I have very little faith it’s Netflix’s ability to properly remake the series.
Even though this series has been in the works since 2018 there’s not a lot of details about it so I’m going to wrap this up by addressing my opinion about the live action remake.
Do I think that it’s a good idea? Not at all. Why fix what isn’t broken? I don’t care about how the series is going to look, the cast or how much they spend on CGI, I only care about the creative aspect and whether they are going to honor the original story.
Will I watch it? I honestly don’t know. I would like to get a little more details about it first, but right now I don’t plan to. I have watched Netflix ruin series I loved and I don’t want to watch them do it again.
In the end I don’t agree that Netflix should go through with the live action re-make. I’ll say it again, why fix what isn’t broken?
I’ll be back with more thoughts on the live action remake as they release more information.
Thanks a bunch!
— Nerd
The Adventures of a Nerd. 