a deep dive on adaptations ft. Avatar the Last Airbender and Percy Jackson and the Olympians 

FINALLY! Someone compared these two fandoms! Like they have so many similarities! Im a fan of both of them

As soon as the Percy Jackson series ended I immediately took to the internet to see if they'd be filming a season 2 (they are, and I'm excited to see how they can improve on and refine what they've already accomplished!). I didn't even finish watching the ATLA series. I think I actually gagged when they went to the spirit world. That was really sad for me because I wanted it to be good, I even skipped to some better episodes (basically I skipped to the parts with Zuko and Iroh). You're totally right about them being unable to capture the spirit of the original source material of ATLA, where the new Percy Jackson series really nailed both the characters and a lot of the dramatic story beats.

This is such a well-written, exeprtly developed, and educated analysis of adaptations, especially with these two shows. Thank you for making this and VERY well done!

Nice video , Have you previously wrote a book in a language that is not english ?

Okay. So the reason I think that there are so many mixed opinions about the Percy Jackson Tv show and Avatar the last Airbender live action is because people grow up with these characters in their childhood. For example with the Percy Jackson books you’re going on adventures and quests along side the characters and you get to know them and relate to them. But with the 8 episode live actions it just doesn’t feel the same because it doesn’t feel like you’re going on month long adventures with the characters so you don’t get to relate to them that much. I think that is why people were saying the PJO tv show was “Fast paced” or that the writing for Avatar the last Airbender was dry. When you’ve grown up with these characters it be hard to see that their personality changed a bit in the live actions or that some scenes changed or other scenes were added that weren’t in the original. Most fans who have grown up with these fandoms want an accurate adaptation. But like you said the word adaptation means change and you cant have a proper adaptation if there are not changes. Ofc everyone has their own opinion tho

i watched the percy jackson series after adoring the books since 2008, and got into ATLA around 2009. i watched the whole atla live action series and it was consistently awful in its set up and pay off (yue being a fox spirit didn't even play into her, say, being the one to know or discover that the koi fish are tui and la, or something). i think atla had an uphill climb bc it was tv to tv, but like 90% of the changes the percy jackson series made (with basically the sole exception of sally's arc being removed - but like, if they had to take something out, this was the thing tbh) were to improve continuity and emotional intensity, ie. mailing medusa's head having consequences, poseideon giving 4 pearls rather than 3 like in the books, etc. even the core of percy and annabeth's conflict being about worldviews about family and parents > just their godly parents being rivals. i watched pjo first, loved it and was very relieved/glad it was good, watched all of netflix atla, and then went back to watch pjo to cleanse myself, lol. while both are exposition heavy, pjo's dialogue being so much more natural + the trio actually feeling like a trio felt like a miracle after whatever was (unfortunately) going on with natla.

As a fan of both, I love both shows, while they're not perfect, they're still good. The only difference are the fans, the PJO fans are saying that the show is good, because Rick is involved, so if anyone criticized the show, then they think that it's wrong. While ATLA fans opened up abt the criticism, but also take it too far, I got death threats for liking the show, and the fandom bullied the cast, especially Azula's actress Elizabeth Yu, just because she's not attractive to play a 14 year old. The only thing I found the two fandom similar, is that both of them has toxic sides