‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’: 5 Key Differences Between Live-Action and Animated Series
Avatar The Last Airbender has finally arrived on Netflix, and with it, a ton of new materials and alternate takes on classic scenes, premise, and newly introduced dynamics in the live-action series.
Before the show even hit the streamers, producers let it be known there would be changes right at the onset of the show, including certain character traits and shifted perspectives for certain character arcs.
But now that the show has touched down, fans are noticing just how much has changed from the cartoon coming into the live-adaptation series.
Check out some of the biggest differences between the live-action and original cartoons below.
Avatar The Last Airbender, Streaming Now, Netflix
New Live Action Version Spends Less Time in the Avatar State
Although we see Aang (Gordon Cormier) reach his Avatar state twice in the first episode, that doesn’t mean we’ll see it as much as we did in the animated series.
“In fact, we actually don’t see Aang going into the Avatar state as much in our first season as they did in the animated series because we wanted to make sure that it felt very special,” the series producer said in an interview. “And we wanted to make it very clear that Aang could only access that state in a specific set of circumstances.”
He went on to say that, as a result, a lot of the rules for the avatar state have been bent in order to reflect this change.
“We actually tweaked the rules a little bit from the original series as to when and how he can access that state, but that’s part of doing an adaptation like this, like there are certain things that we are going to modify, we’re going to change.”
The Show Opens up Entirely Different
In the live action, an Earthbender fails to make his escape with a scroll, instead giving it to a friend with news that a war from the fire nation is coming. But of course, Fire Lord Sozin (not Ozai) reveals their awareness is all part of their plan. We then spend time with Aang and the rest of the nomads before his long underwater nap to the present day events of the story.
Meanwhile, the animated series opens with Sokka (Ian Ousley) and his younger sister Katara (Kiawentilo) fishing in a boat, where they happen upon the slumbering Avatar deep underwater.
Sokka Is Less Sexist, and Katara Is Less Maternal
Kiawentiio, the actress portraying Katara, expressed, “I feel like we also took out the element of how sexist [Sokka] was. I feel like there were a lot of moments in the original show that were iffy,” during a recent interview and the change is apparent from the get-go, as Sokka’s attitude is right on the forefront of his introduction. However, in the live-action, that aspect is entirely missing, instead replaced with big brother’s bravado and filling his late father’s shoes.
Then producer Albert Kim said that Katara’s character would be getting an adjustment: “There are certain roles I think that Katara did in the cartoon that we didn’t necessarily also do here. I mean, I don’t want to really get into a lot of that, but some gender issues that didn’t quite translate from the cartoon.”
This may allude to Katara assuming a maternal role within the group in the original series, a noteworthy aspect as she confronts the challenges presented by Sokka’s sexism, which proved pivotal in both conflict and character development.
Aang’s Narrative Leaves Less Room For Kiddy Detours
It was announced that Aang and the gang wouldn’t be going on their frequent detours in their quest to end the Fire Nation’s war against the other nations, which is pivotal for Aang’s growth.
“In the first season of the animated series, he’s kind of going from place to place looking for adventures. He even says, ‘First, we’ve got to go and ride the elephant koi,’” Kim said in a recent interview. “It’s a little looser as befits a cartoon. We needed to make sure that he had that drive from the start. And so, that’s a change that we made. We essentially give him this vision of what’s going to happen, and he says, ‘I have to get to the Northern Water Tribe to stop this from happening.’ That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, ‘Let’s make a detour and go ride the elephant koi,’ that type of thing.”
Story Moves Right Along
Much like Netflix’s One Piece adaptation, some story beats are left to the wayside in favor of bigger moments, as there’s only a limited amount of episodes per season. For example, the first episode largely covers the first episode of the animated series, plus some establishing flashback moments we don’t get for some time in the original show.
After that, the live-action series jumps straight into Kyoshi Island in the following episode, even though we don’t get there in the original until the fourth episode. Aang also meets the previous Avatar, Kyoshi, in the second episode despite not meeting her until the first episode of Book Two in the animated series.
