Part 1 of How Netflix's Avatar Lost Its Martial Arts Identity 

Live action avatar was a mistake by default. The last airbender cartoon was geared for all ages and it totally delivered

I hated the Katara vs Pakku fight. Not only was it slow and awkward but Pakku straight up just shoots ice out of his hands like he's Elsa

Kinda unrelated but I just noticed something that angers me. In the OG any time Zuko fights a non bender, he uses martial arts. I.E Zuko V Sokka in EP 1 Sokka charges Zuko with a spear, Zuko breaks it with his cuffs, and knocks Sokka to the ground with a broken piece. He then uses fire as a threat, and once Aang shows up. Or in Zuko alone, he fights the thugs without even removing his sword from there hilt until the earth bender starts to fling rocks. Zuko has way to much honor to take on a non bender with fire, and only uses it as a last resort, case in point the kyoshi warriors are highly skilled with there fans, the only way he stood a chance was to use his bending. This Zuko has no honor trying to cook Sokka alive.

Sifu Kitsu directly said on Tumblr that bending in the Netflix adaptation is garbage. Make of it what you will

“It feels like Harry Potter, not martial arts” sums it up all too well!

the abundance of the "flamethrower/kamehameha" type moves from the firebenders was one of the first signs.

My favorite part was when Aang forgot how to fly when Zuko hit his glider. He just starts falling and falling

Martial arts in avatar was an intentional detail of differentiating benders and nations from one another and to accentuate a bender's own personal traits through combat.

Don't forget Aang didn't run in the middle of the night.. that's important as none of them have any real character flaws now (which is a flaw) He went for a ride with the window down to clear his head. With every intention of coming back. Which means the storm was.. right on their doorstep? Since the temple fell that night? Or he went a long ass way for just clearing his head

I hate how all the earth bending is so slow. In the og show it’s solid fast and rigid. Then there’s the fact not a single earth bender uses their legs to stomp the floor to raise earth like in the intro. That bit of “leverage” made earth bending feel so grounded

They fly now? They fly now.

I was so confused when I saw the live action. How did a Nickelodeon cartoon have significantly more authentic kung-fu?!

strange thing to me about both of the live action adaptations is that for some reason water drips when a bender bends it. not only does that not make any sense (because why would some of the water that’s lifted from the ground not be in the control of the bender? the water the bender wasn’t in control of wouldn’t have been lifted in the first place, it’s water), but it’s also a bunch needless extra work on the vfx artists to add the droplets and shit into the show/movie (edited for grammar)

Thanks for pointing out the issues with the “martial arts”. When ATLA originally aired, my friends and I were practicing/studying Northern Shaolin and so it resonated with us at the time. It’s definitely one of many unfortunate choices that made the live action unwatchable for me 😑

idk if I'm just a huge nerd but it really bothered me how they used firebending in this show, like the fact they constantly enhance their melee attacks and shoot fire with their open palms instead of by punching. also the fire never felt impactful like in the cartoon where the most basic fire ball felt like it had force behind it. like sozins weak ass flamethrower move during the comet felt weaker than most of zukos singular fire balls.

I thought I was only one thinking the LA lost it’s martial arts roots. Glad so many people agree on what contributed to ATLA’s greatness. What amazes me is that you can hear the actors saying they went to ‘fighting camp’ for a few weeks to train, but you barely see it in the show.

Sole reason why Avatar was created because Nickelodeon executive wanted a martial arts show with contactless fights so it can't be sued when little Timmy starts throwing punches at his little sister. But you're definitely right in that they just look better and are easier to direct.

My favorite thing about the Netflix live action is how it’s brought people with all sorts of knowledge to express how the show failed. I’ve seen story wrighters, character specialists, fight scene analysts, and so much more and in between. Now one specifically on the martial arts! Great video well put together! Much enjoy! (Also small thing, kinda important, aang didn’t run away in the NLA. He was just getting some air/time to think. Wasn’t actually running away. Tho the rest of the show really wants you to think he ran…)

A lot of movies and such these days have the "Above the Waist Stagnant Close Camera Shot" problem. It's like they forgot what good and dynamic cinematography was.

I questioned why she took her gloves off to waterbend as well, but she actually did do that when capturing the fish in the cartoon.

This, the martial art aspect is so important, and a lot of shows today ignore that.

A shame they didn t reach to sifu kisu as a consultant on this show. The show had a 150millions budget... And couldn t afford something that had such a profound effect on the worldbuilding. Having aang flying around and doing jedi télékinesy just felt so wrong. Not even mentionning the water bending, or the fire benders' kamehamehas... Ugh... 😢

Katara with Cartman voice sent me 🤣

as soon as i saw the blue spirit mask and swords i knew you were a source to be trusted

I clicked so fast when I saw this. I've been wanting to talk about the lack of willingness to engage with the martial arts world building of ATLA. One moment in the original show sticks with me to this day; which is a moment from the water bending scroll. When Aang is talking to Katara by the river (or pond in a ravine,I think?), and he is talking about fundamental similarities, he simply raises both his hands up high into the air and makes a giant wave (therefore royally pissing off Katara). I love that simple little moment because it is not a fancy motion. It is simple,direct, and it correlates perfectly to the effect it has on the water. It gets better when Katara is seen practicing in other parts of the episode. Her stance is nonexistent and she is not relaxed,yet she is also trying to do too much (rather her movements are not unified). Here the animation in the og matches the live action show. The poor form would work in live action, if there were good examples for contrast. It's just a shame. So much of what was core to the conceit of the show,that could have been reasonably achieved (I believe) was ignored or missed altogether.

Was the first thing I noticed about the live action was how nonexistent martial arts was. For most part they were just lightly waving their arms around I believe zuko has the most movement of all of them.

The earth benders from when zuko rescued Iroh pissed me off the most When they went into their squat to bend the earth it looked so half assed And the rock cgi was moving so fast and unnaturally that it looked like it weighed about the weight of a foam

Yes the firebending claw was the first thing I noticed with the bending! It was so silly. Please do the rest of the episodes! There's a fight choreography I really like in one of the episodes and I wonder what you'll have to say about it.

I genuinely don’t know why they didn’t try to hire the same storyboard artists who worked on the cartoon, most still work in the industry. I’m sure plenty of those storyboard artists would’ve remembered all the extensive training they were put through in order to be capable of correctly drawing fight scenes in the cartoon, that way the new show runners could’ve just mooched off their expertise to get nice looking fight scenes, it would’ve been a lot better than the thoughtlessly trashy fight scenes they ended up using for the live action series.

NATLA has one redeemable quality and its introducing me to amazing underrated creators

Thank you for your video essay. One of the reason I didn't enjoy Avatar's sequel series, the Legend of Korra as much, was that it also removed the Martial Art Identity of Bending changing it more into Point and Shoot Magic spells. It's was like watching the difference between an intricate ballet to jumping up and down.

No shot, I didn't even notice and knew something was off. FISTS...

"Can't 1:1 animation to live action" This has been an overused term EVERYWHERE in hopes to "defend" the Live Action's dignity, NAAAAHHH, Netflix can make Set Designs, Character Designs, and VFX look like they were TAKEN STRAIGHT from the Animation, AND THEN THEY SUDDENLY SPEAK AND MOVE AROUND LIKE ROBOTS? Creative Differences, so clear that even Toph can see it if you held it up in the air

Thank you! This was such a well made video. I didn't realize this key aspect of martial arts being completely taken out until you pointed it out. And now I can't help but feel angry, feeling like, HOW COULD THEY?! But what's more impressive is to me is how you even touched on storytelling and character aspects throughout the whole videos. Shows that you have diverse knowledge.

They're gonna make Aang open up the entire Dialogue book with 0 emotion talking about how he was "flying" and that he actually just made Air Wings 💀💀💀

What bothers me about the genocide scene is that aside from the fact they can rocket-fly, the comet empowered firebending looks exactly like regular firebending. In the original there was a huuuuuuuuge difference in the amount of fire they could create with and without comet. That makes the fire-flying more believable, because you can actually see how they're in super god mode.

The show has an identity crisis it doesn't know if it wants to be a magic show or a martial arts show

The first issue for me was when Katara blocks the fire blast when they escape at the end. I just couldn't believe the stance (is it still a "stance" if you're sitting?) she ends in conformed to the motion of the water she bended, and, coming off of the anime, I immediately thought she was doing an earthbending move. I was trying to be generous to the show. However, that didn't last and broke when I realized that the fire benders all have to hold their fire with the leopard claw. One, fire comes from the breath and extends past the arm... just something from literally episode 1 that becomes an actual plot point... Because it's so constant and doesn't seem to have any purpose, it quickly just made me think of how I played dinosaur when I was like 5 years old. After that, I absolutely 'heard' them going "grr" every time fire benders did any bending. A correction on one note, though: Aang isn't flying in the show. If you pay attention to the wider shots, you can see where he starts and ends up at each point in his motion, and it's always a downwards decent. He's doing some bending to have a slightly powered glide, but is ultimately he's just controlling a decent under gravity while showboating. However, it absolutely comes off as flying because almost never get to see him from the side -- we never have the perspective necessary to see all the dimensions to the motion. If you're not trying to piece it together from context clues (and I can't take credit for that, Murphy Napier pointed this out in her review), there's absolutely no way to figure this out. So, not a bending/lore issue, just a basic blocking/editing mistake, which might be worse?

Yup... I felt pretty bummed out the martial arts aspect was gone, but kept hearing people say that at least the bending was good.

As someone that has worked in TV and dealt with producers and such, the creators of the live action probably thought audiences were too simple minded to know the difference between good fighting and flashy visuals. Or good writing vs bad writing. Sadly, given the 70% audience score, they aren't far wrong. It's unfortunate. They NAILED Zuko and Iroh's relationship, in my opinion.

I was ranting the other day about this because I saw the clips of firebenders fight with open palms. I wanted to cry, seriously, because I grew up with martial arts films and I love ATLA so much for incorporating real martial arts in it. I already decided not to watch this adaptation as soon as I saw a clip featuring Azula gang. I didn't know that this adaptation would hurt me this bad.

I got into Kung Fu because of the cartoon. Seeing Toph bend using Southern Praying Mantis literally changed my life. So much of the lifeblood of the show was rooted in the concepts of Kung Fu, so it was sad to see it ignored in the live action.

Something that I have struggled to put into words that you hit the nail on the head with is describing the animated show's bending as puppting the elements. That is exactly what they are doing in the animated show and exactly what they arent doing in the netflix show

Honestly, Zuko's bending was overall the best and most distinct in the live action. I'm convinced this is down to the fact that Dallas Liu, Zuko's actor, is a martial artist himself, though it Shotokan Karate and not kung-fu, but he is actually capable of pulling of some pretty sweet moves, unlike almost everyone else in the cast. The directing obviously is not doing him justice, and I get that it would be hard to cast a bunch of kids who know martial arts, can act, and resemble the characters they are playing. They basically got very lucky with Dallas Liu. The long and the short of it is, since they couldn't do that, they shouldn't have bothered to make the bloody live action. I've seen a lot of people say the bending was better than the movie, which it definitely was, but that is also possibly the lowest bar in history.

Fire bending is just the Skyrim magic system 😂

15:25 Katara took off her gloves to Waterbend in her first scene of the original series too. I reckon it’s just easier for a bender (especially Earth & Firebenders) to wield their element without covers like gloves or shoes - hence why Earthbenders are almost always barefoot & Firebenders also are during Agni Kais - though admittedly we never see Water or Airbenders barefoot (which is weird considering monks often go barefoot & we never swim with shoes on) though in the cold regions of the North & South Poles it makes sense to keep your feet dry - though the Swampbenders were barefoot.

I don't have enough knowledge about martial arts but I learned about the martial arts each bending is based on and you actually opened my insight about the bending in the live-action, I didn't pay much attention especially to the opening and how flawed it is, your video was really educating

I wanna see this with the Iron Fist Netflix show.

Love this perspective, great video Can’t wait for the rest!

Your stuff is great, man. Looking forward to more!

17:16 I just remembered, I think I saw somewhere that this show was shot in a way that easily translates to TikToks/RU-vid Shorts (i.e. having everything important happen within about the middle third of the shot). I haven't watched the show myself, and I haven't been looking out for it in the clips I've seen, but I imagine that's the reason for these spacing problems.

fantastic video! couldnt put into words what about the action felt so off to me when i tried watching the netflix version, but you hit the nail right on the head lol not only was this informative, it was also quite funny! keep it up :)

8:52 I think maybe the idea was that Aang (or Airbenders in general) can glide through air slipstreams using Airbending (though why they didn’t just have him use his glider staff I’ll never know 🤦‍♀️) but I agree it looks too similar to flying.

Why did she take the gloves off to waterbend 😂😂😂 Fantastic video dude!!

awesome breakdown man!!! looking forward to see your next ones and i hope your channel blows up!

Good video! I haven't seen any other reviews that focus on the martial arts and fight scenes

13:17 I could get the "show don't tell" and terrible closeup criticism from anyone who has ever watched a movie. I clicked on this video praying that someone would point out the leopard claw thing. You did not disappoint. That's not how ANY of this works!!! Your hairy potter comparison is spot on. I can sleep now.

I think the air bender in the animated opening is gyatso because for a split second you see a mustache that looks exactly like gyatso's

7:20 Sozin frames it to Roku as the fire nation sharing its prosperity. but that’s because he knew that was the only chance of getting Roku on his side. based on his later actions it’s clear he never cared about the well-being of the other nations or the world as a whole. he literally genocided a whole nation. if his goal were spreading prosperity he would’ve found another way

The fact that he did this video while doing a split is crazy to me

Yo, thanks for this video! Been waiting for someone to do a breakdown of the "martial arts" in the live action, because the fight scenes were terrible and frustrating to watch. And to think, the source material already did all the work in terms of making the fight scenes mean something to the characters and the world! Can't wait for your future videos on this 😃

Finally someone is talking about this! I've finally found my people

Thanks for putting this in video format I had the exact same thoughts when I watched the first episode. I've fallen out of practicing martial arts but I've done a little Hung Gar and Tai Chi (of the styles prominently in ATLA). I will note Kora also kind of lost the Martial Arts Identity to a degree imo.

8:50 You could argue that Aang isn't flying here, at least not in the way someone like Zaheer does which is almost entirely passive. He's activly airbending to maneuver through the air and help him glide. That's why he keeps landing/jumping-off points. Even still that's not really something airbenders do all that often if at all and especially not without gliders. Eitherway it looks like he's flying probably because this show's creators wanted him to fly and they didn't know or care that he couldn't. It's probably seems small in comparison but the biggest thing that gets me about that scene though is that the air temples were separated by gender. Yeah they visited the other temples from time to time, but it doesn't really look like they're just visiting. It kind of feels like the directors thought that there was only one air temple or combined them all into one or something.

Lmao, I had sub after this 9:46 line because I'm also very frustrated with a lot of issues with the live-action, I look forward to watching the next episode analyses.

Also if I remember correctly from a bts from the animated original, they based each bending element on different martial art disciplines/styles (I don’t actually know the term). Like there was a lot of thought put into the world building of ATLA that the Netflix adaptation just ignored

6:45 - I highly doubt, that Mai will actually poke some more than a scratch. Adaptation humanized every antagonist from the start (beside Sozin and Zhao) (beside the moment when Zuko looked like he would totally kill Katara, if Kyoshi didn't appeared). I even doubt, if Azula is going to be any bit terrifying, that's, how strange everything there. I really hope I'll find myself wrong, when season 2 comes out.

The martial arts in the show is literally based off of the 4 Chinese styles of martial arts. Baguazhang, tai chi, northern kung-fu, and hun gar. If your not a martial artists at all or don’t appreciate the style of Chinese Kung fu then your not gonna spot the techniques at all in the Netflix avatar. Dallas Liu northern style kung-fu is natural especially as Zuko because that’s what he studied at the age of 12 year old and he himself in an interview said that he had to go back the basics to remember it. And yes the open palm strike techniques that you got in your thumbnail does have Zuko using in the animated show as well just can’t remember the episode or season, but if you look at the day of black sun 2 part episode you literally see a firebender using double open palm hand strike for a defensive technique but the fire didn’t come out because of the eclipse.

The martial arts essence was lost since legend of korra. Which makes you realise that korra mastered the three elements because the skill level to learn was lowered. Also, they no longer needed to train in understanding the elements and mastering techniques.

ive been wondering about the accuracy of the bending what a shame

Sir, this is a very well made review of the martial arts in the Netflix Avatar. I feel the same about it. It is a shame they were not concious about the core features of ATLA and yeah also a shame they changed the script without obviously having any nerd/fan/intern giving them those important infos you are giving here. This video throws salt into my fan heart, but at least it is desinfected now.

I disagree with your take on Sozin, and the fan wiki does as well "Over time, Sozin began to develop his ambition to unite the four nations under his rule. His grandson, Iroh, attributed this quest for power to jealousy of the Avatar's immense strength, a feeling that only grew as Sozin immersed himself in the role of Fire Lord and put ever more importance in power and influence." I liked the rest though.

I couldn't put my finger on it as to why the fighting looked off...but you perfectly explained it. also SOKKA was WAAAAY too good at figthing in the first episode...tf...

avatar got me in to wushu, i did it 4 years. Its a bit disappointing to know the live action didnt embrace martial arts.

For some reason then tiny clip in this video of the actor for Ozai getting interviewed made me think of What We Do In The Shadows and now I want an Avatar show in that show's format

Oh boy you're gonna have a field day with Suki mate. I feel for you... I wanna see you break that down (If there is anything to break down) but also I feel like you'll lose your sanity watching that episode. For a guy who has no idea about martial arts I found the Kyoshi warrior fights to be extremely corny. 🤣

I have no experience in directing but everything you mentioned in this video also bothered me and I already knew those changes needed to be made.

Sozin wasn't misguided lmao. He knew exactly what he was doing and made a thin excuse to validate himself, he's the final authority in the fire nation and used the excuse to make sure the army wouldn't dissent by thinking they were fighting for a good cause. Good dissection on the martial arts parts tho 👍

He always flew in the avatar state.

I literally booed my computer screen when I saw that they used CGI for the intro. They should have gotten real people to do it since its supposed to be authentic martial arts.

Great video

You are so right. Within seconds of this fight my brain just automatically turned off. The editing is really bad. No spatial awareness, no directionality. "Wait didn't he bend in that direction? But now the scroll goes off in the other. Oh ok a wall but, wait the wall is between him and the courier. When did he turn around?" OFF like okay this is just whatever, I'm not acutally supposed to follow the action. The only thing that matters is the outcome, got it.

Hey man, don't sleep on book one. From episode 12 on that shit slaps

Not to mention that for the second time, zhao stabbed the moon spirit instead of killing it with firebending like in the cartoon. That really frustrate me. At this point, the show runner seems to really intended to adapt the atla movie instead of the cartoon and were just forced to take some elements from the cartoon to keep the original fans at bay. Lol Kinda sad since i really like how they added texture on most of the character's clothings. Bumi's clothing tho feels like a shitty attempt on forcing another real life culture not shown in cartoon to the live action. Cartoon bumi's attire gives him a more chill and leader, the live action just makes him to be a materialistic aristrocrat with all that jewelry adorned on him

I'd rather watch the *MANY* fan films/animations that do *RESEARCH* on what martial art is used

To be fair to the hiring agency, it's probably very hard to get Martial Arts Masters that are Good Actors and Amazing Actors that are good at Martial Arts. However, the weird mismatched Choreography has no excuse.

Omfg thank you! I was starting to think I was crazy or just being plain hard to please. It's all a bunch of half baked contemporary wushu instead of distinct classic styles.

When they said they wanted to "Game-of-Thrones-ify" this thing, they were not wrong and did that in all the wrong ways.

I hadn't really focused much on the martial arts, but you're right, it has never been great in any live action adaptation. I doubt they had the original martial arts expert who set up the original four styles. If they did, maybe he left with the creators. As for Aang 'flying', I think arguably he can be said to be gliding, as a lot of air benders could kind of do in Korra. But, yes, I definitely did did say "so he can fly now"?

please make a part 2. There is a lot to talk how it lost its martial arts identity especially when kyoshi appeared in kyoshi island. She was literally just spinning

keep it mind that this show was being showed to new group of people who had no idea about the show

Oh man, this has been my gripe too. The detailed and varied styles of benders make each character really interesting, and allowed from some cool shots (eg toph subtly shifting her feet) In the first show they made the point that a person's movement is intimately connected with their emotions and thoughts. This feels missing the in new series, even thought it's mentioned it isn't really shown. On top of that the action isn't -interesting-. There's little creativity in the choreography. Like the people writing these Kung Fu scenes don't understand Kung Fu! It's gd mystifying why they keep using horror / drama directors for a comedy / martial arts franchise.

That odd cut on Monk Gyatso alone is the perfect example for the problem with this whole thing: He sweeps the enemies attacks aside, spins, and then..... Bumps his staff to the ground to send out a shockwave. What?! Why would an airbender not continue the spin and use the momentum to blast an air wave along with their staff swing continuing the motion. Because hitting the staff on the ground looks cool and final. Not because it makes sense for the actual fight

I'm not sure if this idea applies in this discussion. But to me, bending lost its martial identity because the show treated bending as straight up magic. In the cartoon, initial conversation between Sokka and Katara is straight up Katara making the claim that bending is not magic. It get expounded later that bending an artform, a technique, a skill. In the netflix show Aang practically flies without a glider. I've seen people defend this saying that there's gusts of wind unlike a certain villain's flight, but come on it practically is. Both Firelords burned people alive with no effort---a simple wave of a hand. Kyoshi Supersaiyan flies (She's in the avatar state, she gets a pass but still worth pointing out). The way water benders freeze water looks like they have frost ray projecting from their palms. And someone else said Pakku looks like he's Elsa with her ice. Azula holds electricity within her palms/fist. Lightning is exponentially more volatile than fire. Maybe it's just me being pedantic on this last point, but that visual of the index and middle finger point gathering cackling streaks of electricity is different from what the Netflix show did. The initial form is claw hands already holding a ball of electricity! You shouldn't be able to hold it like that. Because the cartoon made that such a crucial point. You don't contain/command the electricity/lightning. You just guide it. Also, since we're here, lightning bending should have zero emotions unlike emotion fueled fire bending. The explicitly said so in the original. Yeah yeah adaptation doesn't mean copy paste 1:1, but they're throwing away top tier worldbuilding! This idea of bending =/= magic is a notion I haven't seen much in the review for the netflix show. Because sure, to us the audience outside the story, of course bending is magic. But in the narrative, in the world of the characters, the original creators initially intended for bending to be different from magic. Because to me, the LA show leaned heavily on bending=magic. It's not as major as some of the character assassinations the show committed, but them making bending=magic has these weird impact to the general worldbuilding. That's why bending often/sometimes/usually feels like it lost its martial identity.

literally just spitting facts. i'm baffled not enough people area talking about the lack of good choreography the whole battle scenes have. flaberghasted, like why is one of the most basic worldbuilding parts of avatar being swept under the rug like this¿¿¿ crazy

Omg this is one of the first things i noticed. Finally someone says it publicly.

One of my complaints was the, as you called it "crowded" camera work or cinematography. It was so claustrophobic and annoying.

Finally! Somebody said it! Thanks!

I don’t know, I liked the beginning section with the Earthbender.

The 1st mistake they made was rehashing the same story. Should have done the Earth Avatar or did rhe story about the gang as young adults.