Highlights
- The live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender balances loyalty to the original source material with fresh, impactful changes.
- Netflix's adaptation sets a different tone by showcasing key events early, adding depth to characters like Prince Zuko and Princess Azula.
- The faster-paced first season covers the same ground as the animated series, offering a more focused journey for Team Avatar with fewer distractions.
The Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been released, and fans are noticing several changes from the original animated show despite there being a huge amount that Netflix has faithfully adapted in their live-action rendition of the story of Aang and his journey to bring peace to his world.
It can be difficult to find a balance in a live-action adaptation of something so beloved between faithfulness to the source material and changes which can be positive and give reason to the existence of a new version. With The Last Airbender, there was a pretty good balance between keeping beloved moments and story threads, and changes to the original, which could help the show.
8 The Opening Scene
Starting 100 Years Prior
One of the most significant shifts in The Last Airbender series is how much the opening changed. While the story of Aang being frozen in ice for 100 years and being found by Katara and Sokka remains the same, the first episode features a lengthy sequence showing the beginning of the war and the arrival of Sozin’s Comet.
It also includes Monk Gyatso telling Aang that he is the Avatar, and shows the attack of the Fire Nation on the Southern Air Nomad Temple in much greater detail. While some of these elements were shown in flashbacks later in the animated series, putting them front and center at the beginning of this new series was a huge shift. It also set the tone for the new show, making the audience immediately feel the loss of Aang’s hundred years more.
7 Kyoshi Attacks
A Past Avatar Returning
In the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series, Aang often communicates with his former Avatar counterparts using the Spirit World. But he was never able to channel his power into allowing their return to the physical realm. In the live-action version, when Aang commutes with Avatar Kyoshi on her island, the Fire Nation catches up to them and invades the island.
As the Kyoshi Warriors, Sokka and Katara find themselves in trouble, Kyoshi uses Aang as a conduit to enter the real world and fight back. She stuns Prince Zuko as well as Commander Zhao, thrilling many fans who got to know her character further in a book series that followed the animated series. This is a new ability which could be seen in future seasons of the live-action adaptation, providing a fascinating link to the Spirit World.
6 Aang’s Journey To The Northern Water Tribe
A Message Of Doom
In the animated version of the series, Aang decides to journey to the Northern Water Tribe simply to learn water-bending, believing that he cannot possibly bring peace to the world and end the war without having first mastered all four elements. However, in the Netflix version of the series, he only decides he should journey there because Avatar Kyoshi gives him a warning message of doom coming to the water tribe as it did the air temples a hundred years prior.
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Aang fears this and decides to journey there, stopping along the way, albeit fewer times and in fewer locations than he did in the animated series. This gives much more structure to the first season of the show, creating a sense of urgency and letting viewers see the path to the big final battle before it arrives.
5 Azula & Ozai Early Significance
More Than Hints And Shadows
Princess Azula is one of the most terrifying villains in the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series, while Fire Lord Ozai is the terrifying main threat and driving force behind the war, but neither is seen nearly at all in the first season of the animated series. Netflix takes a different approach, showcasing all the “big bads” early on, having Azula infiltrating Fire Nation resistance fighters and bringing them to her father on a silver platter early in the season.
Additionally, Azula is shown several times throughout the season, encouraging Commander Zhao from afar and trying to turn her father against Zuko in some way. Her father sees through her, commands a terrifying on-screen presence, and gives the audience much more reason to fear Aang’s eventual confrontation with the man.
4 The Spirit Realm
Friends Coming Along For The Ride
In episode five of the live-action series, Aang enters the spirit world and meets with his old friend, Monk Gyatso, as well as runs into the horrific Koh, the face stealer. The major difference between this and the animated episodes where Aang enters the spirit realm is that he accidentally brings Sokka and Katara along for the ride.
In a turn of events, the brother/sister duo are near Aang when he successfully enters the spirit realm, and are brought along for the ride, seeing truths that they’d rather not face as they are subjected to scenes from their pasts. A fascinating change of pace from the animated series, which never saw anyone follow Aang into the spirit realm, this showcases the Avatar more as a true bridge via which anyone can cross into that other world.
3 Zuko’s Crew
A Much Deeper Connection
Prince Zuko has a lot more depth to his first season in Netflix’s version of the story than he did in the animated series. His backstory is shown in great detail, and his struggles with gaining the respect of his crew due to his tantrums go on for several episodes until his command is usurped by Commander Zhao.
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But his uncle tells Lieutenant Jee, a man who doesn’t respect Zuko and is a leader among the crew, about a story which was never included in the animated series. It involves how Zuko ended up in Agni Kai against his father, leading to his injury and banishment from the Fire Nation. A new legion of Fire Nation recruits who were to be sent to certain death by the Fire Lord were only saved by Zuko’s standing up for them, leading to them becoming his crew. The moment when they find this out and show him respect makes for a fantastic moment in Zuko’s story in this version of The Last Airbender.
2 Azula’s Intervention
The Villain Behind Zhao
Not only does Princess Azula appear more in the first season of the Netflix series than she did in the animated version, but she also plays a significant part in Commander Zhao’s machinations in taking over the hunt for the Avatar and trying to end Zuko. Zhao reveals all of this to Zuko before being killed by Iroh.
Telling him that his sister has been helping him by convincing her father to send the Yuyan archers to Zhao, and identifying the swords of the Blue Spirit as those of Zuko, Zhao lays waste to Zuko’s beliefs by telling him that his father has only been using him as motivation for his sister. This is shown to have worked, prompting Azula to demand she be sent out into the world by the end of the first season, leading to her confrontations with Team Avatar that made some of the best episodes in the animated series.
1 Less Filler
A Faster-Paced Show
One major difference between the animated and live-action versions of The Last Airbender is the pace of the show. There are 8 episodes in the season, but they cover the same ground and storytelling as the first season of the animated show, which had 20 episodes, which meant that the pace of the series would have to increase.
The first season of the animated series saw Team Avatar facing constant distractions in their journey towards the Northern Water Kingdom. The same journey is the focus of the Netflix show, but it is a much more focused one. With only a couple of stops along the way in Omashu and in the village where they decide to enter the spirit realm, Team Avatar is a much more focused force on an important mission, making for a positive change, even if less individual stories are told.
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