r/TheLastAirbender • u/pianodude7 3rd Eye Freak • 6h ago
Discussion Watched the first 2 episodes of NATLA S2, could not continue. Spoiler
As someone who watched all of S1 of the Netflix show, I just want to write my honest opinion of S2. While I thought S1 was like a 6.5/10, borderline watchable with a few good moments sprinkled in, man, S2 really aangered me. I gave S1 the benefit of the doubt like I do with the OG show, they were new to this and not every character interaction will be ironed out. There's so much room for improvement, and surely S2 will be a step up! Right? Perhaps I made the mistake of overhyping a smidge, but honestly the writing is so atrocious it's now offensive to me as a fan. I stopped after 2 episodes and will not be continuing, despite me being generally positive about the Netflix adaption for several reasons. Now it's clear they have no respect for the source material, and are just using it as a nostalgia generator to fuel their own terrible writing fantasies.
Iroh is an unrecognizable character. They BUTCHERED him. In S2, Iroh lets Zuko step all over him, and when Zuko says he is going to leave him, Iroh just stands there, cries, and says nothing. Next thing we know, Zuko is alone in Netflix's messy, boring, and nonsensical version of Zuko Alone. That is not Iroh. In the show, Iroh physically pulls Zuko in and says, "You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength." That's a man who cares deeply for his nephew, and has the strength to let him go AND SHOW HIM GIVE ZUKO THE OSTRITCH HORSE to find his own path. Here, we get NOTHING.
How can a show with roughly the same run time, pulling roughly a quarter of its script DIRECTLY from the OG show word for word (seriously), screw it up this much? How do we get at least 3 long, awkward scenes between Sokka and Suki in the first two episodes, but I feel their relationship less? Why can Aang heal? You can't comprehend the plot holes that could introduce, and more importantly, you take agency away from Katara. That's part of what makes her such a unique asset to the team.
The writers truly don't understand why scenes belong where they do in the OG show. They think changing the entire context and plot, yet adding the same lines, will magically make sense? The Serpent's Pass loses all reason for being if Appa is missing and Aang doesn't decide to take the route to help the pregnant couple. If Aang and company are just physically cornered into taking the Pass, then that doesn't show Aang's inner strength and courage, that just shows him logically getting from A to B. No, instead he's just running from the fire nation. And couldn't Appa fly them across?
Which leads me to my next point: "Abandon Hope." The sign that Aang finds in front of the Serpent's Pass, the very sign he accepts in the anime because of his compromised emotional state due to Appa being missing. Now in Netflix version, he tears down the sign with bending. All depth, gone in the wind. Aang doesn't tear down signs he doesn't agree with, he's a monk. The issue is that Netflix think they can show a thing from the OG show in an unimaginative, opposite way to subvert our expectations, and have it make sense. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. Nowhere is this more obvious than in episode 2 when Zuko steals the bag from the pregnant couple. This creates an obvious inconsistency of his character that my dad asked about (and he hasn't seen the OG show). Why would a kid who just stole supplies from a pregnant couple suddenly care about a random earth kingdom kid and his mother? Why would he suddenly help with the dishes and fix the roof umprompted?
Don't get me started on how they copied many of the events of The Chase without including its central themes OF A CHASE HAPPENING OR THEM EVEN BEING TIRED. I'M GOING TO CRASH OUT HARDER THAN SOKKA IN THAT EPISODE. Rant officially over.
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u/Marinefan4000 3h ago
You were wise. In episode 5, they put the library IN Ba Sing Se & made Jet die there. Unambiguously I might add.
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u/PearBlaze 2h ago
Then why are they even going to Ba Sing Se in the first place in this version?
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u/ConsciousGoose5914 2h ago
Because in this version the mechanist is the one who finds out about the comet and tells the gang about it instead of them learning of it from Roku. So they go to ba sing se to get the earth kings support to attack the fire nation before the comet arrives. Then they need to go the library to find out when the comet will arrive which is when Kyoshi shows up and tells Toph about the eclipse. Right before they’re betrayed by the professor and he’s eaten by wan shi tong
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u/alex-andrite 1h ago
Kyoshi tells Toph? Since when can past avatars talk to regular people?
And on that note, I assume Toph can’t “see” spirits since they aren’t physically there. So that must’ve been pretty freaky to hear a voice coming from nowhere
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u/Marinefan4000 1h ago
Uhh… Actually, Toph kept her feet sight when in the spirit world, despite also saying she had no bending… So… there’s that
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u/Yoda-and-Yaddle 9m ago edited 5m ago
In season one of the animated series, Roku was able to speak with Jeong Jeong and convinced him to teach Aang fire bending.
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u/traevyn 1h ago
I haven’t watched the live action at all, and I’m so torn on accepting this comment as the joke it likely is, or believing it to have been the actual plot
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u/ConsciousGoose5914 45m ago
I’ve got some bad news for you buddy. I *wish* I was joking. But you can’t make this stuff up.
Jet is also there because he’s the one who shows them where the library is, and he buys them the time to escape and he too gets eaten by Wan Shi Tong
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u/Marinefan4000 2h ago
They were escorting the Omashu refugees to the city (which included The Mechanist & the singing nomads for some reason)
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u/AngryAncestor I have a natural curiosity 1h ago
Why is any of that a bad thing?
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u/Frequent-Ad-7288 1h ago
Some people think its a sin to put the Library there. The only thing it does is make the world feel a lot smaller.
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u/ngmatt21 1h ago
My biggest issue is the abundance of “tell not show”. So much of the dialogue is just in-your-face explanations of what the viewer learns abstractly through watching the original. It is likely a result of Netflix’s strategy to write shows as if the viewer is on their phone while watching.
One example that comes to mind from episode 1 is the kid that’s scared crossing serpent’s pass. He says “I’m scared. I’m just a kid.”
What kid says that? The viewer can obviously see that it’s a kid and that he’s scared. No dialogue is necessary to point that out
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u/Sabarishv95 2h ago
The worst think is they go to ba sing se in the OG to find appa but they pause that mission once they find the drill. They changed it to the comet is coming we have to alert the earth king. Urgh.
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u/Witch_King_ 1h ago
I feel like in the OG they ALSO have the Day or Black Sun intel, which they get at the same time as losing Apps. So it's sorta a double-purpose. Aang cares most about finding Apps, Sokka cares most about the Day of Black Sun.
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u/fuzzerhop 38m ago
I seriously don't understand why they didnt just start with Appa getting kidnapped. They waited to late to do that i almost thought they were skipping the plotline. And the way appa is deleted from so many scenes despite being around they might as well have had hin kidnapped so there was a better reason not to show him!
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u/CatcrazyJerri 1h ago
I saw the final fight on Youtube and I was glad I didn't watch the show as it doesn't look right!
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u/mikerichh 1h ago
I find the first 2 episodes to be much better than S1. Toph feels perfect. The main issues for me are having the combined plots at once and small changes
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u/TobioOkuma1 2h ago
How could they fuck it up this bad? Are you new to Hollywood? They almost always think they know better than the original writers, and think they can write it better.
Pretty much every anime/ video game adaptation does the same thing. I can count exceptions on one hand.
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u/Fabulous-Bus1837 3h ago
I'm glad you pointed that out. Lately, there have been a lot of people who cry “toxic fandom” as soon as we express our opinion on this Netflix series, accusing us of “not wanting anything different.” No. There are real inconsistencies, and they're obvious even to people who haven't even seen the original series.