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.
Doesn't he fight the Kyoshi warriors with a fire kick, though..? Though I do agree he's portrayed with much more of an intention of killing people with firebending here, though (Katara in the second episode as well)
Yes he uses fire, however he probably would have lost if he did not, hence only using it when needed. Also he had an army with him so he has to be a little more ruthless.
Absolutely brilliant point made, it's true, Fighting Aang or any other bender he uses his fire, non benders aren't a threat, hence him knowing he's so skilled as a fighter, he doesn't have to use it outside of a threat, (like when he first met Aang in the Southern Water Tribe). 💯
Sozin just white lied so he could get the avatar on his side. He let his best friend died in front of his face. You can literally tell he wasn't misguided.
Honestly I’m kinda with you. The only real issue I had with the original is some filler from Book 1 and the fact that bladed weapons couldn’t make contact with flesh, but the show is still objectively one of the best ever
@@camgoodkickstbh, visual damage as a whole is kind of a glossed over aspect of the Avatar comics. We see so many firebending incidents and so many firebenders, both local and military, yet the only actual burn scars we see are on Aang, Zuko and maybe a person here and there. Evn clothes don't catch fire. Same with earthbending. Full on impacts with rocks and we don't see wounds or even bruises. It's probably to make it more Kid-friendly. Other than that, I do think book 1 was more filler to appease the kids, and with further seasons the writers shifted to overarching storylines and 2, 3, 4 part stories.
@@rudrodeepchatterjeeIt wasn't perfect for sure but the animated series was damn near close, also even tho We weren't seeing people get burned alive the series really hammered down how dangerous Fire was since when someone did get burned it was serious and we even had a Character like Jeong Jeong who literally hated His own element even tho He was a Master, so even though the live action decided to appeal to us GoT Fan's buy showing people get burnt it didn't land any were close to showing the danger of Fire that the Cartoon did through proper Story telling Watch Drew Gooden's Video on the live action series, one of the things He said rings true for the live action, "If you have to cut out character development moments so you have the space to show a bunch of air benders getting set on fire, you might want to take a step back and reconsider your priorities".
@@HonkaiDaily well yeah, we do see it.... But it's more so tilting towards "showing but not telling". Fire being dangerous is a universal fact even outside of AtLA, it's just that for a world where people have even more control over fire than IRL, significantly less incidents are shown. The farthest Book 1 went was Zuko's scar and Katara's injury in the Deserter. But as I said, it was regulated for kids.
@@HonkaiDaily also I absolutely agree with the latter part of your comment. The idea to emphasize on the genocide was a good one given their intentions of making it more serious. But they had to cut a lot of corners to get it in.
The most "kung-fu-ey" Bending probably happened from Zuko's side, but I am not experienced enough to know if the aerial gymnastic firebending he did so much was kung fu or just...gymnastics.
They seem overpowered even without the comet. Ozai just seems to use a massive AoE attack to kill the rebels and it's way faster than the average endgame pyromancy shit.
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
My thoughts exactly. A huge characteristic of earthbenders that separates them from others is how much they use their FEET, and somehow that's never shown? Everyone just 'pulls' earth out with their arms. Considering how the character of Toph is explicitly centered around how important the FEET are, being as grounded as you can, seeing that even in the intro from the first episode the earthbender just using his hands was utterly bizarre.
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.
Then Iroh introduces a fire bending move based on water bending and explains how the separation of the 4 nations is an illusion. I don't think they understood what he meant there, but rolled with it anyway. Also they're just being lazy and banking on the cgi distracting people.
@@haku8135 The philosophy is like that in Kung Fu too. Practitioners will create models of their arts by describing different movements / feelings as "energies" (Feelings of body, emotion, or any other kind); and focusing on one type of movement / feeling will yield different results than focus in another . But each one is just a subset of all possible energies. The ultimate skill (body / being awareness as a human) remains true no matter which style one uses. Having skill in this allows masters to learn new "energies" quickly. So kind of like athletes. One could argue that a rough & tough rugby player's body, emotions, etc are quite different than a pro golfer. They are different styles of athletics. But with skill a pro rugby player could do well at golf, or vice versa, because they are good at manipulating their energies.
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
And then they decided to still copy the guilt-story-line with him feeling he abandoned everyone. It felt so awkward when he simply didn't... you'd wish to have been there / make a difference, not that you didn't 'go to clear your head'.
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 😑
Dude, that was immediately the first thing I noticed when I sat down to watch. Again, going off just this first episode, I really feel like this has zero martial arts literacy in it. It’s wild because I KNOW Dallas Liu through tricking and he can cook. I hope it’s just a director thing
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)
The water dripping would make sense for Katara in the first few episodes. Katara is a Novice, so if the water only drips when she is picking up a lot, It would show how difficult it is to lift a large amount when you are only used to picking up a small quantity. In fact, it would be a good way to show how good someone is at water bending without saying anything. While Katara has a few water drips at the show's start when she gets to the northern water tribe, other water benders her age have more when lifting the same amount. It would show the viewer that Water bending takes strength and the ability to stay grounded when making harder-to-pull moves. It would also pull from the philosophy later on that to be the best at bending, you have to take the philosophy from other elements, though I think that is way too much to ask from a show that has to explain what the Avatar is 3 times in the same episode.
@@GiveMeTheRice The logic is that a novice wouldn't have the power or ability to keep track of all the water because they lack confidence. A master would be able to relax, and by not focusing on trying to balance all the water but only the water on the outside, they would be able to control it. Water also has a decent amount of weight to it, with 1 Liter of water being 1 kg or 2 lbs. Given how water is more flexible, it would take a lot of magical strength to keep it floating and in a single shape. That's my logic anyway.
Because the original creators not only had a strong vision for their action scenes, but also had a martial arts consultant work with the animation and storyboarding teams. The kung fu action was actually part of what got the show picked up by Nickelodeon to begin with!
part of if is animation vs live action. In the cartoon if you just deleted the bending but kept the martial arts you would still have world class feats happening. Plus in the cartoon you can have characters do things that are impossible. Even something small like have a character bend over to far to stay standing is easy to animate but irl would need wires and cgi to edit them out.
@@Nisacha49 you mean the staff that took half the episode to finally be revealed in the first place? hmmm surely it’s not because the writers forgot its significance to being able to FLY…then remembered half way through filming….
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.
Preach. That is exactly the stuff that inspired me to make this vid. I just finished getting the second episode script ready and unfortunately there were still no vertical fists 😑
@camgoodkicks that's good to hear. I really started to believe that I was the only one who noticed the lack of martial arts because barely anyone seems to talk about it. I'm looking forward to part 2.
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... 😢
@@camgoodkicks yeah. People seem to not realize the level of scam in these shows. Some people are making a lot of money for very shallow results. It was the same with the lord of the rings (edit rings of power) (465millions for the filming of season1)...
Aang glided, he didn't fly. Gliding is an airbending move Aang did in episode 4 of the animated series as well. About the telekinesis, I am unsure which part you are referring to, but I will just point out Aang in the animated series was able to partially move stuff around using airbending(for example Aang vs Zuko on the ship).
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.
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.
It’s even crazier with the cast. I have literally tricked with Dallas Liu years ago and that guy can pop tf off. It’s the directing and choreography choices
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 wouldn't be surprised if it is another technology problem with the new 3d green screen room tech, in SW Kenobi there are 2 major lightsaber fights almost completely black due to the dynamic lighting of the scene being locked in before the filming and then the lightsaber effects being locked in an edit or something, so I would be unsurprised if the cameras were locked too to certain angles and blocking or had an "aim assist".
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…)
Because in the original you need your movements to be fluid to use waterbending, so it's more like Toph being barefoot. And Katara catched fish by making the wave-ish thingy with her hands, which arguably is harder if your big warm mittens (probably from leather and fur) are on. Meanwhile, if I'm seeing correctly, in live action she just does grabby hands? Not exactly something that needs freedom of movement
@@TuskyBaby From what I remember, most (if not all) earthbenders in the show go barefoot. So it's either a tradition, or it does help them bend more accurately/makes their bending stronger.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Legend of Korra started out with a distinctly MMA and Tricking inspired approach to mirror the evolution of real-world martial art development. However in season 2 and parts of 3/4 they kinda devolve into DbZ battles fairly often
@@camgoodkickswith all due respect, that is just not true. The only fight in tlok that is any part similar to dbz is the final battle between unalaq and korra. Which is a very small part of book 2. The other fights between the twins and the brothers and korra and her uncle were just as well choreographed as atla. The variety of styles based on the character was something i enjoyed greatly
While I can see why people wouldn't love the deviation from martial arts, you can't deny that it wasn't out of left field. There was a valid reason behind it. Just like today's world has kickboxing, wrestling, and all forms of just random fighting designs, as well as styles like Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Judo, the Avatar World also had this. It started off with traditional styles being learnt. But as bending became more diverse, people started developing styles that are not as structured and fluid. It went from stylistic bending for boosting strength, to rapid bending for speed and less damage. Except for the few moments in LoK where it went off the charts for even LoK standards(example: Unavattu vs Korra, or the Mech at republic city).
"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
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.
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.
They didn't. They poisoned the well. Zuko and Iroh are basically pointless now. There's nowhere for them to GO. They've basically given them a father/son relationship from the get go and that ruins EVERYTHING about their story. Their attempts to add onto Zuko's story so early just makes one of if not THE greatest redemption arcs in history weak and meaningless. You need to be EVIL to be redeemed! This Zuko is obviously not. What they're doing is manipulating your emotions with scenes that DON'T earn it by leeching off your memories of Zuko in Iroh's tent at the end of book 3. You already know their whole story, so they put these bits in to remind you of the GOOD version and give them free nostalgia. It's cheap and disgusting. They also destroyed Iroh, which is unforgivable as far as I'm concerned.
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
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?
he clearly does more than just glide, even if it’s not “flying.” aang in the cartoon never super jumped without his feet on the ground first, but the live action aang does like a double jump kind of air bending move and even fully hovers in mid air a few times without descending. aang in the cartoon also doesn’t glide downwards like that, he just free falls and then cushions the fall at the end when his air blasts are close enough to the ground to soften it. this isn’t the only area of the show they changed the rules of flight. in the cartoon, there were only two firebenders who were shown to be able to fly and they were fully fledged masters powered by the comet. but ten minutes into the live action show, the entire fire nation army of random foot soldiers fly up the side of a mountain with ease. (azula did not fly in the cartoon either, she just did a super jump like how aang does)
In the air temple, at minimum he’s gliding in a fashion never shown without an actual glider. He goes side to side, and even rises up a bit. And never does he appear to be actively airbening, he’s performing glider style maneuvers without without a glider. In the water tribe, he’s literally walking on air. He’s going up, down, sideways, and blowing his whistle, without any airbending moves. So even if he’s not technically flying, he’s very close, and feels like he honestly should fly at this point. Because he’s not even trying at this point, and is one step away from legitimately flying. Aang really doesn’t need his glider at this point.
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.
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.
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
Unrelated, but I feel the Legend of Korra sometimes falls into this trap as well with the bending not being as strongly rooted in the philosophy and appropriate martial arts style (like Korra randomly gaining the ability to throw air punches and kicks at Amon). The introduction of mecha tanks, spirit beams, and giant robots also makes it feel a bit too much like power rangers and reduces the bender vs bender fights we see, which is disappointing. Despite that, it is still leaps and bounds ahead of Netflix's version. They're not even close.
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.
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.
That was basically what I was saying. This feels like ki blasts or casting without wands, neither of which are what bending was based on. It may be a new interpretation, but at that point you’re losing 90% of what made the fights interesting
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"?
From what I’ve read and looked through on the IMDB credits they did not have a martial arts consultant for this show. Which is very unfortunate considering what they’re adapting
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 :)
Thanks so much for the kind words, I appreciate it! I’m looking forward to the rest of the series because of some behind the scenes stuff that looks great so fingers crossed that it gets better!
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.
You’re welcome! I plan on covering the rest of the series one episode at a time! Korra is interesting because it followed the real life evolution of combat sports, mma, and martial arts tricking. That is an entire series of vids on its own
I’m a martial artist first! Avatar is very special to me because it is the reason I still do Northern Shaolin and Changquan! I’ve got the next episode scripted
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
I’m telling you, as someone who has performed these arts, the choreography choices were mid and poorly shot. Dallas Liu is being wasted here and very obviously did not decide his own choreography since I’ve been to gatherings with this guy and have seen in-person how hard he can cook! The behind the scenes of his action leads me to believe it gets better in time
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.
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 👍
So funny story about that. This entire idea for a RU-vid series was conceived years ago BECAUSE of that show. I was so personally annoyed that me and my buddy re-shot some of those fights just to prove how poorly they were made. It is 1000000% on the list
@Ponakalaranjit456 you GREATLY humble me, but I could never fly the same as Sigung Bruce. Although I do think I could playa good Iron Fist. Or at least the stunt double!
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
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.
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 😃
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.
Fingers crossed. I only JUST finished the script for next week’s vid and it’s not much better. However it is the last one directed by Michael Goi so hopefully it’ll be improved from there
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
To be fair the behind the scenes for this one also said they still based it on Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua Zhang, Northern Shaolin, and Hung Gar as well, but the whole point of my vid was how little made it on screen
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.
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. 🤣
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.
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
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 appreciate your comment. Thank you for your time and kind words! I agree with you, especially considering the budget they had to work with, I feel like there should’ve been more of a consultant presence. Unsure why they didn’t bring Sifu Kisu back
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
@@camgoodkicks whats more frustrating is that Aang does a better version of what that movement should be later on in the same episode. I appreciate your content for pointing out the inconsistencies. I felt that something was off in the bending but I didn't have that as my frame of analysis when I watched the series.
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...
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.
Korra is interesting because they were explicitly making a statement on how martial arts evolve away from traditional roots into stuff like MMA and Tricking as well as how later generations tend to go further than the previous. Doesn’t stop that the execution was spotty tho
Oh for sure. I remember seeing tiny clips of the scene in RU-vid videos thinking this was definitely gonna be a highlight. Then when I actually watch all of the episode and got to the action it ended so fast. I was like wait that’s it? Like man it was so anticlimactic
It's kind of symptomatic of issues with hollywood attempts at kung fu in general. Practically every time they go with the most generic, least grounded sport wushu Hollywood fu they can find instead of researching actual combative styles. Avatar was great partially because they weren't just miming vaguely martial arts looking things, you could see from things like fighting stances, types of strikes used and even Aang's footwork that the choreographers understood how those techniques worked. I mean, you see Ty Lee go from using finger strikes to phoenix eye fist for her qi blocking as she gets more experienced, which really shows how well they understand how those techniques. You never see phoenix eye fist pretty much anywhere in movies or TV. Ironically the last time I saw it was in Dragon Ball Super because Hit uses it.
Yeah! You get it! What makes me laugh tho is that the original creators cited Shaolin Soccer as an inspiration for how the movements would coincide with the elements. You mean we can’t do better than 2001 in 2023!? (Going by film date, not release)
@@camgoodkicks That's also weird to me because Shaolin Soccer is so intentionally over the top with everything it does that it's just not that suitable for choreography that takes itself more seriously. In the cartoon, movements carry a lot of intention, and while the intention is there in Shaolin Soccer, it's buried beneath several layers of intentionally goofy slapstick nonsense. If the creators of the cartoon were able to pull together coherent fight choreography from that, they're even more talented than I thought.
Finally someone talk about this. But could it be because the production of fighting scene in the OG would require a lot of skilled stuntmens and they just cannot have them? but from what I heard they get a huge budget tho.
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.
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.
Aang "flying" is not even the same thing as Zaheer's flight. He was actively using airbending to keep himself up similar to what Ozai did during the finale.
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.
@camgoodkicks agreed. My first thought when I saw the fire bender in the intro. Too many spins. Too much flow not enough punctuation. Earth was okay water was okay. The actual action some what redeemed fire and made the others look really bad
@camgoodkicks and the fact that the zuko/iroh storyline was surprisingly good. Azula/ozai was meh at best. Idk they were all over the place. I think zuko/iroh was the only decent think in the show besides a few effects here and there
This show made so many mistakes in a really large variety of aspects that makes you wonder. Didn't they have a team full of people besides the showrunners? It's really amazing how they can miss the point on so many things at the same time with this show. One thing they managed to get away with was the VFX, not being as luxurious as high budget, but good enough to enjoy visuals. And that's the problem with this show, they neglected very important aspects of what made the animated series so good just so they could invest more in impactful visuals and sequences. All bland and soulless but the effects are nice.
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
It may just be a factor of focusing on the wrong things. Unfortunate, considering part of the reason the show was greenlit by Nickelodeon was its Martial Arts representation
In both ATLA adaptations I always found it a bit strange how absolutely zero air benders survived the genocide. Especially when they are the only nation at the time with any means of flight. Why didn’t anyone escape via air bison?? 😆 We saw dozens of them in Netflix’s opening scene, but none during the ambush.
Watching this show, I could never put into words the reason why this show was executed so bad. I love your insights from this video! Thank you for opening me up to the world of martial arts. btw, since they rearranged the whole story, I'm guessing the reason Aang can fly (9:20) is because the Netflix producers made him feel worldly detachment? And then him finding out he's the avatar ties him to the world so maybe he lost that detachment?
