The keel was a very good analogy. Avatar was like setting sail without that keel and it crumbled. One Piece had the keel, and even though it wasn't the greatest boat, it had the most important part keeping it afloat.
@@rakhatthenut3815the writers already respect Oda, and when Netflix wants them to skip main arcs they deny them cause they love one piece. A statement from he said they won’t put it out til oda is satisfied, and it wasn’t in contract the writers like Matt Owens just want it to be like that.
@@clff1342 yep. The point is, Oda would have not agreed to even consider LA if it was any other way. Because he is respected by the writers, he is in it
One Piece live action owes so much of its success to its lead writer Matt Owens. He truly loves One Piece. Two years prior to the show coming out, he was talking to One Piece RU-vidrs about it. He spoke the language of a One Piece fan. He explained he fought for this job because it mattered to him that One Piece be done right because the stories of One Piece matter and can make people's lives better. The show absolutely benefitted from having Oda involved, but Matt Owens absolutely deserves credit for making the series as good as it was.
I had no idea! It's so cool that even without realizing how big of a fan Matt was as lead writer, his passion was clearly translated into the final product.
If you want to hear it, search Matt Owens Reverie and it’s under Rogersbase stream VOD. The comments should have a timestamp with his bit. I went from an absolute hater to instant believer after he talked.
@@FrameOfMindBros For recent news for the live action season 2, I heard that Matt Owens (and also Oda?) had to fight the higher ups for Alabasta arc to be moved to S3 than fit everything in S2! We assume they also wanted to cut Whiskey Peak to fit Alabasta. But Matt and Oda-sensei really had to fight for it and won!!!
One Piece author oversaw the whole LA adaptation, and was given authority to give the last word. Avatar creators left the production due to creative differences. One gave authenticity to the adaptation, while the other threw dice in the air and hoped for the best.
The fun thing is that technically, they don't NEED to listen to oda, it's the fact that they choose to let his word be law that really sells how much respect they have
I think it’s also important that I haven’t heard a single thing from the ATLA live-action writers about their love for the original, whereas the lead writer for the OPLA had been talking for years about how much he loved One Piece before he even got the job writing the show.
What always got me about removing Sokka’s sexism is that -the entire point- of it was that A) his sexism was wrong and B) people can change their views on others. Removing his sexism is the opposite of what anyone opposed to sexism should want. It just boggles my mind that people look at an example of sexism being bad and all they take away from it is that the character is sexist and we don’t want that in the current political climate. In saying that I think that is one of the issues this adaptation has. They smooth out all the character’s flaws because they’re supposed to be beloved characters and beloved characters can’t have bad aspects. They fail to realize that overcoming those flaws is part of why the characters are beloved.
Feels like an expression of a culture & atmosphere that prioritizes the destination over the journey. 😢 What they don't seem to realize is that the only value found in the destination is the story of what it took to get there.
@@FrameOfMindBrosworse, I feel like it's a product of weird, recent mindset that we can't have flawed protagonists. Disney did this with the CG Pinocchio, making him a blameless good little boy instead of a misbehaving little brat. I'm split on why this seems to be happening. I wonder if writers are afraid that their audience won't root for a character with flaws, or maybe because some people seem to think writing these kind of characters is condoning bad behavior. I don't know but it's very frustrating.
@@FrameOfMindBros I think it's also the result of distrust in the audience - when you assume your audience is dumb and will jump to conclusions (like thinking you're sexist because a main character in your story starts off as sexist), you make the story dumb and impossible to misinterpret. As a writer (short stories, not television) I know what it's like to get dumb comments on my writing - and by dumb I mean I wrote a story about a character with PTSD lashing out and having a hard time coming out of the "fight or flight" mindset, and I got comments saying "yikes, your protagonist isn't supposed to hit their friend!" even though the protagonist is presented as being in the wrong! But if I let this kind of comments shape my writing, I will never be able to write about characters who struggle in ways that aren't the squeaky-clean image mainstream media likes to portray. And this is a story I wrote with an agenda (what you might call politics) in mind -that agenda being "I know people who struggle with PTSD, and I know they can't relate to many mainstream portrayals because those portrayals are either too 'family-friendly' to reflect the reality of FIGHTING you own brain every day, or too hopeless and end with the character in shambles. I'm going to write about a character whose struggle is at times ugly but they have hope and a future."
My biggest problem with Avatar is the obvious destruction of characters. Roku in particular was a clown, when he's suppose to be connection between Fire Nation and Aang, that should have set him to be the guide. Aangs past voice to help find his own Avatar way. One Piece cast did not exactly replicate the anime characters, but that's a good thing. What actors did was embrace each one and adapt what was missing to make them feel real. One Piece was an adaption with serious approach but kept the fun. Avatar canceled the fun; instead created a fancy CGI spectacle.
The LA one piece characters are slightly different but they still feel like their characters, they are accurate in spirit. Most the things inaki did feels like something manga luffy did, and even the little change that he doesn't have an appetite when he's worried about his friends but even that doesn't feel that far off. Luffy does care more about his friends then meat so the change still kinda works for this adaptation
When the creators of Avatar left I lost hope. Oda had said in his yearly jumpfesta letter that the show runners won't keep a scene if he was unsatisfied with it. Mat Owens (one of the SR of one piece) has been quoted saying one piece saved his life
Netflix wanted them to skip a lot of the smaller arcs so they can get to alabasta immediately, but matt stood his ground and pushed alabasta to season 3 so ALL arcs get their due. I understand this worries a lot of people thinking it means they won't get to the end, but i say, i don't mind all that much. If you have two choises, for the LA to skip arcs and not do they justice so they can finish, or not get to the end but the arcs are fleshed out as they should, what would luffy choose? Luffy was ready to die in Loguetown because the adventure up to that point was fun. We should think like luffy, and be happy they are taking their time so the show doesn't feel as rushed, and if ends prematurely, let's be happy we had this adventure at all
Love the analogy of Loguetown Luffy 😂 It's probably best to hold the belief that they'll never finish the whole story in LA, so just enjoy it for as long as it lasts 🤞
1:50:00 AMAZING analogy with the keel there, and I'd like to contribute something else that they mentioned there. Luffy asked them to build a new Merry from scratch if needed, and the reply he got was, paraphrasing, "No two pieces of wood are identical. Even if we had the original blueprints, and followed them to the T, you are the ones who'd notice it's not the same ship." If the keel is the soul, or spirit of the story, and the rest of the ship is the medium/adaptation, the viewers would be the crew. We are the ones who notice it's not the same story.
One additional thing about sokka’s sexism in AtLA: after he is reformed he must also witness firsthand the effects of these kinds of dismissive attitudes towards women in the northern water tribe. He has to see how much it hurts yue to be a part of a system that has no regard for her feelings and treats her as chattel and (to a lesser extent) he sees his sister’s frustration at their unwillingness to teach her waterbending. The series didn’t leave a single scrap of meat on that bone. Also the thought experiment you’re referencing is called the ship of Theseus
I didn't watch it. I was very excited, but once Michael and Bryan left the project, I wanted to wait and see what people were saying before I wasted time on it.
I mean the original show is phenomenal. Live action Avatar? They managed to make it boring. One of the most exciting episode-to-episode series, and they somehow bored me. Yeah, not worth it.
@@RUSHYRUSHY39 Not the first season. Reason live action had so many problems with the first season is because there were a lot of problems with the cartoon's first season and during it creators kept changing a lot of things which would be very noticeable in live action if they did that. Show format changed.(they went from story of the week to connected story) Katara nearly got the whole show cancelled because people hated her that much so creators started creating test episodes to see how people react to new version of Katara.(that is the Katara people know and pretend that she was the og Katara. She wasn't. Og Katara was very unlikable) Zuko wasn't intended to be a long term thing which changed. So live action had to create a version of Katara that did not exist which was mixture of both Kataras otherwise you would need to cut her out completely for the most part of the season.(that is why she isn't doing that much in the live action in the first place). First 2 episodes of the show are the worst ones because they somehow had to connect them to everything. Zuko worked out very well though. Second season most likely will be much better because they can just go straight forward without trying to work through cartoon's flaws.
@@gandalainsley6467I feel like you and I watched a very different version of the old shows first season. Katara feels like a completely consistent character to me, no idea what part of her you think changed a lot, and the show started setting up Zuko as a character from episode 3. I feel like you should rewatch the first season of the show, because you ironically seem to be misremembering it yourself.
1:15:10 Most great stories have a political statement in them. The thing is: Is that statement justified by the story I'm experiencing? Or is it just someone saying "that is bad, this is good" with nothing to show for it? "Sokka's sexism is bad, we're removing it from the story". Ok, I hear you, let's compare both versions, then Sexist version Sokka progresses and betters himself. Non-sexist version lacks personality, drive, will, and gets thoroughly abused. Sexist version Suki is strong, resolute, powerful, funny, badass, mature, knows who she is and what she wants. Non-sexist version is childish, awkward, abusive, not fully self-aware, selfish. So Suki goes from a badass fighter, strong woman, and amazing character, into a horny creep, and Sokka into a Stockholm syndrome patient with next to no personality. In the "sexist" version both characters are way more likeable. I guess sexism is good, then? Jokes aside, the original show gave us reasons for Sokka's attitude, and portrayed the consequences of them. The story itself said "Sokka's (not only sexual) chauvinism is bad, Suki is removing it," but not at the expense of Sokka, who grew on his own from the experience. To Sokka, Suki was a wall to crash onto face-first. He alone learned from the crash. And Suki, as the badass she certainly is, showed that you are the one to decide who you are. The new show, on the other hand, only portrays a completely dysfunctional relationship between two unlikeable characters: A lashing-out bully wannabe boss bitch, who's in turn kept on a leash by her lashing-out bully wannabe boss bitch mother, and an emasculated, aboulic nobody, gift-wrapped and ready for the bully to toy with. The marketing team, meanwhile, publicly said "Sexism is bad, according to our checkboxes for modern audiences, so it was eradicated from the script." It's not the story giving the message, it's the marketing team doing it. The story tells me that frustrated bullies can creep on and abuse weaker people and get rewarded. This alone is proof enough for me that those in charge of making decisions never understood the story.
Also another thing, it's crazy that in the TLA Live Action version: The book about WATER , they use waterbender maybe once or twice in all the episodes.
I'm willing to bet money that season 2 is gonna start off with Aang having mastered Waterbending offscreen. It'll probably start with him, in Pakku's class, doing a series of complicated waterbending moves, and either Pakku or Katara will be like "Wow, you mastered waterbending so fast!"
…Which will be a huge retcon to how Netflix s1 ended because Pakku is there saying that Katara is welcome to stay in the NWT to help rebuild things after the battle and help train other waterbenders along with Aang, and she decided to…*not* do that… and instead follow this boy to his next uncharted destination and just teach him waterbending when he has the time. 😒 I’m sure he’ll be a natural waterbender though.
dude with how well these actors have been portraying their original counterparts i know for a fact that Water 7 is going to shatter me once we get there in LA 😭
I hated usopp immensely so i was hyped for the fight because i was happy usopp was being kicked out of the crew. The fight that made me tear up was luffy vs sanji in WCI
Monk Gyatso was strongly against telling Aang about the avatar at all, and was personally concerned about the effect on him if the role were pushed on him. Having our first impression of him being him doing exactly that is antithetical to his character.
I feel like that really highlights how changes to characters aren't inherently bad, but changes that are in direct opposition to characters' traits and motivations probably rarely, if ever, work. 😢
I've seen the showrunner talk about One Piece when he was invited by a youtuber to talk about one piece. I've seen a youtuber and writer (and long time fan of one piece) said he's actually worked with the writing team for the live action. I've listened to the interviews of the composers gushing about the show. I've heard directors talk about that their sons, nephews and nieces were fans of the show. I actually believe like 95% of the cast and crew are either superfans of the show or at least fans by osmosis. Lol. The ones who aren't fans before are most probably fans now because all I ever hear about them is that they love one piece now 😂 I've never heard anything like that from Avatar live action except from the main actors.
To expand on the point of the writers of One Piece wanting to know how lights worked, Steven Maeda (showrunner alongside Matt Owens, and writer) read the entirety of the manga up to date to make sure any changes they made didnt clash with future events of the manga He has many interviews talking ab behind-the-scene stuff here on youtube, im sure u guys will love going through his thought process. Another behind-the-scene story is ab the barrel scene at the very end. An editor made a quick edit including the strawhats as kids making their pledge, Maeda got emotional at that version and left it in the final cut
This makes me remember Alvida's actress. She lost a ton of weight since S1 to better portray Alvida as she is in Loguetown. And nobody told her to do that, she did that on her own. You can really feel how much these actors and actresses love this show they are a part of.
Adding onto the castings, I have never seen a show where the cast has this much amazing chemistry with each other, & they’re even making the newcomers feel welcome. I had recently seen a video of Iñaki (Luffy’s actor) playing Catan with the actresses who play Alvida, Tashigi, & Vivi.
I hated how they didn't embrace the comedy/goofyness in the start of Avatar, because now we won't feel and witness the build up and the difference on the start to the climax of the story. The feeling of "ohhhh this is getting serious" was not there
I don't even like the live action version of Avatar, but Aang clearly wasn't flying in his opening scene. It's like people magically forgot that Aang jumps off giant buildings or structures all the time and slows his decent with Airbending.
Thank you!! I don’t know why people aren’t considering gravity…but I definitely agree with them that the whole scene was could of been executed with more context
God I love that Oda wrote the Going Merry's end so well that even over a DECADE after it happened, ppl can still tear up when just briefly talking about it lol. Over a damn boat!
1:18:14 one of the most wild things about that statement about trying to make ATLA “mature” like Game of Thrones is like - one of our major characters is a survivor of child abuse!! His entire arc is realizing that what he went through WAS abuse, and it wasn’t his fault and wasn’t OK, and learning to stand up to his abuser. And it’s not like they hide or imply that, they make it pretty damn explicit that Ozai melted part of Zuko’s freaking face off!! Just because the tone of the show is overall positive and hopeful and sometimes it’s comedic doesn’t mean that it didn’t deal with some really dark and mature subjects. “It was CRUEL and it was WRONG” still hits me right in the chest every time I rewatch the show. (Also I was 20 the first time I watched ATLA and loved it, so.) Edit: I think one major difference that made OP LA work where ATLA LA didn’t - the OP crew leaned into how ridiculous the show could be at times (Capt Morgan’s zebra pants, Buggy being just his head and hands and feet in ep 2), whereas the ATLA producers tried to avoid how silly the OG show could be as much as possible.
It seems the Avatar show adaptation focus was making sure the special effects this time were handled better than the that Avatar movie, I mean budget was tight. But they forgot about the real stuff that matters. There was no balance. They forgot about the characters and the plot.
Thanks so much tommel! 🙏🏻 with kind people like you leaving comments I think this channel has a chance to do okay 😁 so glad the internet brought us together
The only thing I really disliked about the live action adaptation was Nami’s village not knowing about her deal with arlong. It undermines a lot of the emotional underpinning of the arc imo. In the manga the whole reason they choose to live under arlong without rebelling is because they know Nami is trying to buy their freedom. And the reveal that they knew the whole time and pretended not to so she could leave without the pressure of their expectations if it ever became too much was super emotional for Nami and the reader. I don’t understand why they changed it.
@@FrameOfMindBrosmostly because the original plan was to have 10 episodes, but almost at last moment Netflix decided to cut it to 8 so some stuff had to be left out, there was even already scripted a fight sequence between Zoro and Hachi but they couldn’t do it at the end because of the budget cut.
They had to invent those tangerine pinwheels, and paint tattoos to omit the very important themes. Like why Genzo is wearing a pinwheel? Because he loves Nami, and a pinwheel made her laugh when she was a baby. Why Nojiko has tattoos? Because tattoos are bad things (in Japan) and she doesn't want Nami that was branded with sawfish tattoo to feel ashamed. They just had to cramp so much into 1,5 episodes it really affected the quality of storytelling.
For me, when I was on board with the OPLA when I saw Matt Owens talking with youtubers. You can see his passion, his love and understanding of the source material. So with Oda and Matt, they did their best. For me, most of the problems of OPLA are budget problems. You find out you spend almost all of your money, so you need to start cutting things, even if it's important. With avatar.. Well, it's evident they don't understand the source material and wanted to make changes for the sake of doing it. PD: We all cried to the Going Merry and that shows how good Oda is with his storytelling.
Dude.. I've been EXACTLY there about the Going Merry. I was simply explainging the concept of the Merry scene to someone who has zero interest in watching One Piece and I teared up. Lol. She refused to believe that I felt that way ABOUT A BOAT ! lOL
1:22:50 - 1:23:35 Wooooah you just blew my mind! I've been watching this show for almost 2 decades and was never aware of those amazing details. I also like the way it was all edited together for this video. Impressive stuff, guys!
I hadn't watched the animated Avatar series yet before watching the LA series. And I am not that much of a critical watcher anyways, but I couldn't really get into it. I had watched the first episode, and then the 2nd and 3rd after a week or 2, and then force-binged the last few over a weekend. A couple of days later I started the animated series which was a such a different experience. I watched the first book over a week, the 2nd over 2 and then took a break, book 2 felt really exhausting for me, and just started book 3. The LA series defies the goofy and jovial nature of the animated series at so many opportunities, it is disheartening. Add to that the "virtue-signaling" flat scenes that rarely ever feel natural or work it becomes iffy. For me, both the animated Avatar series as well as the One Piece manga/anime are very similar in so far that they both appear to be goofy and childish adventure stories, but, even if you do not really pay attention, reveal chasms of nuance and depth below the most minute and or banal details. The Avatar adaptation doesn't, as you so minutely dissected, even seem to realize a lot if any of the originals strengths in that regard. Sure, the One Piece Live Action did change quite a lot of things as well, but many or most of these are, if you stay still and think about it a bit, were made due to necessities of the adaptation process and its limitations - most of all budget (be it time, episode count, money, reality etc) and in order to uphold the originals spirit in a different medium. Am I fan of all those - no - the flattening of most side-characters for example is one - but it is also very apparent that it was done due to budget constraints. With some changes me not liking them is also because I question the perspective going forward (ie the Going Merry being an apparently brand new ship, and some character stuff) but that is something the writers have to tackle. A story of Steven Maeda, the 2nd OP showrunner, I really like is how he dreamt about a scene with Hachi and Zoro fighting through Arlong Park only wake up as if from a nightmare because he tried to estimate the costs of the CGI of that one scene alone. The anti-cynical nature of both Avatar and OP are their core strength, in my opinion (with all the quirks, however genre- or realism-defying the resulting/entailing tropes might be). Trying to be more "mature" and "gritty" is antithetical that core.
I feels like lack of communication between member of production of any adaptation. If you think logic for a moment, why the hell nobody in world tell the writer, "hey it's not the same as the original, the fan must be furious if we told the story like this". I start thinking maybe executive must be a big part of this changes right? Compromised on the standard/blueprint/original. We as society have lost ability to provide negative feedback to each other. Afraid to lost income, being canceled, scared to tell the truth, lose your job. We are terrified to accept the negative feedback and to give negative feedback. To much positive, and it's become delusional.
I made it to episode 3 for the live action, it felt like a chore, but the changes they made with the avatar state just got me way too annoyed to continue
One of the biggest letdowns for me is how we've never seen Aang bending water, like at all. Why? That's an integral part of his journey. If they wanna cut things short, then maybe reveal that Katara had the waterbending scroll already and Gran-gran was helping her train in secret. So when she's introduced, she's somewhat of a master and can begin to instruct Aang better. Another is Zuko's scar. It looks utterly pathetic. Like a temporary black-eye then a permanent grotesque scar. They didn't even bother to cover up the eyebrow. Sokka's new actor doesn't have enough range to match the character. They made Bumi a bitter jerk for some reason, what was the point of that? The rest of the series was ok at best but their take on the Fire Nation family was such a massive improvement. For starters, they actually acknowledged Iroh as a war criminal who actually did horrible things. Ozai was a much more enjoyable character to watch. He's still very much a bad guy but in a real and human way, he's not forced to be some generic anti-christ figure. They also made him smarter and more calculating and we see how much of a bad ruler he is, making a replacement all the more justified. He's also not a mere bully and a coward, he admires people who try to stand up to him, thinking that they'd be useful, hence why he was pissed with Zuko for not fighting back. As a bonus, Ozai and Iroh actually interact more. Their dynamic is not "Cain and Able" levels of basic but it's not wholesome either which makes it fun to see. Azula was great too. She's still able to do her thing, be conniving, and strategic, and take over Ba Sing Se off-screen, but we see just how toxic and conditional her relationship with her father really is and it's clear that in everything she can do, he can do better. Although I don't get why they didn't let her have blue fire. Aside from that stupid-looking scar, Zuko was portrayed rather correctly. I think it's universally agreed that the twist of the FN rookies sent out to die and Zuko's crew being the same group of people was the best change they've made. I also like how Katara had to gradually earn Pakku's respect and is not easily won over by some convenient twist.
1:51:55 Say it with pride, this is the badge of honor we One Piece fans carry: We cry over the fucking drawing of a boat with a ridiculous sheep for figurehead. And I say "we cry" and not "we cried" because I first read the Water 7 Saga like 15 years ago. I still cry over that damn chunk of wood. DAMN YOU, ODA!!! STOP SENDING ONION-CHOPPING NINJAS TO MY HOUSE!
Adding onto this, in the first episode of the live action, you can hear a certain song play in the scene where Shanks is stitching up Luffy’s face. Every One Piece fan knows this song & it has made them cry or tear up every time they hear it. And the amazing thing is, when we hear this song in the anime, Luffy mentions that he first heard it from Shanks.
@@Phanthief95 I love all those callbacks and references they did in OPLA, to things that are canon to the story but were not shown even in the manga (the most glaringly obvious one being Zoro's fight against Mr. 7). And ATLA did it to some degree too, by showing the Fire Nation attack on the Air Temple, for example. Sadly, they fucked up almost everything else
I loved the One Piece live-action so much! I do think it had flaws. It was rushed and it felt shallow compared to the manga. Usopp's character development was cut out, so was Sanji's big connection to Luffy via food, and Coco Village not knowing about Nami's sacrifice and the subsequent omission of the scene where she plasters a smile on her face saying "I'll start saving again certainly makes "help me" less powerful. With ATLA, I couldn't make it past episode 4 or 5. One of my biggest issues with the Avatar live-action is that Aang doesn't run away. He goes to clear his head. So Kyoshi blaming and calling him out for running away is weird because it's objectively untrue. And she should be one of the few people to know that. And the show directly opposes the themes of the original show. The original show says "Use the Avatar powers as a last resort". The live-action says "The avatar powers are your first resort".
Agreed, but so does the creative team behind OPLA. They wanted 10 episodes at first, but got cut down to 8 due to budget concerns. I imagine having two extra episodes would fix the things feeling rushed or being omitted. They wanted to really be done with east blue in the first season, since that is mostly like the prologue of the actual show. So they had to rush through a few things. But season 2 will be much slowed paced. Netflix wanted Season 2 to include the whole alabasta arc, but Matt Owens and Oda fought back and managed to convince Netflix that slowing thing down will be better for the show in long term. Seems like they want each of the arcs before alabasta to really get done justice.
The only way I’m coming back is if everyone that was involved with the writing/script is removed…anyone that didn’t have a problem with it, anyone that knows someone…everyone just gone. Love the actors and the vfx team
We need to take in account that a lot of persons engage into the realization of One Piece are One Piece Fans. They care about the story, they desperately want the success of the show and really care about the opinion of Oda sensei.
I think a big difference was how they looked for the creator of one’s approval but not the other. When the og creators of ATLA left I started to worry more.
They literally could have had the whole Air Nomad tribes or whatever come in with the intention of revealing the Avatar and oh shit it's Aang! All while you see/hear talk of a comet - like c'mon! Seems way more credible then for them to celebrate some comet.
1:22:00 This whole segment got me tearing up. Having this feeling of, this is one of the best thought-out shows ever made, best story ever told. Now Netflix got the honor to represent it in another medium and they totally mishandled it. It is so unfortunate. It hurts.
Comparing Oda to the importance of the keel was brilliant. Such a great breakdown of ATLA LA and OPLA and the importance of keeping the spirit of the shows. I listened to the whole thing. Dang you had a lot to say lol (but well said)
wow, really enjoying listening to this, you both have consistently brought up ALL the same things I was feeling as I was watching the show (and a lot more insights, ofc), but ESPECIALLY the whole thing feeling like a theater production. One of the biggest things that I felt lent to that? Almost every single time there's characters talking back and forth, it instantly becomes flat, boring, shot/reverse shot sequence where the characters talk flatly at the camera and wait for a response like I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3 and I just got locked into dialogue. I got so frustrated early on seeing them do the same shot over and over and over and over on all of the gorgeous sets that exist exclusively as theatrical backdrop for the stage production happening in front of the camera. It ties right into the Tell-Don't-Show issue, the cinematography ends up being incredibly boring because it ends up relying on shot-reverse shot for all of the back and forth dialogue, in a show where they forgo a LOT of action for expository dialogue. These combine to just feel so, so, so bad and frustrate me so much while watching because of how much it stands out once I noticed. I haven't been able to finish the show myself, thank you for suffering through the rest for all of our sakes.
The thing with the Netflix Avatar is, it wasn't bad, but it didn't hit the mark. It felt so flat and almost soulless. The "lights are on but no one's home" feeling. It's definitely something they can improve on with the next seasons, compared to if it had been an actor problem or something that is almost impossible to change, so i'm desperately hoping they will as i really want this show to succeed still.
The fact that the Avatar writers beat for beat copied the "can't I just keep pretending I'm your son" moment from Man of Steel made me cringe so hard my first time watching it.
the original creators overlooking scripts and scenes is so crucial. when the creators of avatar left the live action project i mentally checked out. conversely i was hopeful ab One Piece bc Oda was all over scripts and scenes. He even asked for reshoots and the showrunners complied. On an interview with Mihawk's actor he revealed Mihawk's introduction scene at the beach in episode 5 was filmed last. They had filmed a whole different scene where Garp calls Mihawk, Mihawk answers and the scene shows him as the only man standing in the aftermath of a fight with Don Crieg. Oda asked for a reshoot where Mihawk completely destroy's Don Crieg's crew, he wanted his strength to be shown and thats how we ended with one of the most amazing scenes of the whole show in the original fight between Zoro and Mihawk the viewer knows Zoro is going to lose against someone who sliced a whole ship in half, we're afraid of whats going to happen to Zoro and that makes the whole fight nerve-racking. Oda knew this and thats why he insisted on the reshoot, bc he understands the nuance of his story that even huge fans like Matt Owens (showrunner) might miss. That feeling of "zoro is going to lose" and fear for his life translated really well in the live action bc Oda asked for the reshoot edit: it was on an interview with Steven Maeda, not Mihawk's actor. U can find it as "Making One Piece Live Action Good w/ Steven Maeda | Thats Dope! Episode 107" around minute 18:28
I'm so glad they decided to make it a mid fight scene not only to demonstrate Mihawk's strength but also his nonchalantness. Answering a phone mid battle and still dominating.
Since you asked for it, something that completely broke my immersion with ATLA that yo guys didn't bring up is how the spy got wind on the Avatar's location. So there's a kid flying all over a city, which is weird enough for the spy to catch wind of it. But when we arrive in the city, nobody even glances at the sky when now alongside Teo Aang is flying all over the place too. Let's take it out of the screen for a minute: You live in a small town, and suddenly a flying kid starts appearing. Sooner rather than later, 90% of the town will have tracked down the location of the flying boy. You can extrapolate it to a big city, if you want, it will be the neighbourhood first, and it might take a bit longer, but it will be soon. People will start asking both Teo and the Mechanist about the weird flying device, the everyone with some money will start requesting gliders for their own kids. Overnight, the Mechanist will become a staple, and the spot where the drafts allow take-off saturated with kids. In less than a week, the army of flying kids will stop being news. Within the story that means a) it would not have reached the ears of the spy as something strange, b) even if it did, with a spy network that vast, and the Mechanist working for the Fire Nation, the spy would be aware of the flying kids, c) even if he wasn't, when approaching the city to verify the intel, he would've seen the citizens were unfazed by it, making him at least ask around, and learn they had nothing to do with the Avatar or any Airbender, d) when Aang arrives, there should have been several kids flying, same as in the cartoon, not just Teo, it makes no sense, and it fucking angers me. If your neighbour can fly, everyone will be standing in line at their door waiting for their own pair of wings. Any other outcome is factually impossible. And then copycats would appear, producing cheap gliders that break, kids would plummet from the skies to their untimely demises, and flying would be banned in Omashu. That's how humanity works. This grizzly outcome was avoided in the cartoon because they were a secluded community away from prying eyes, and even then every kid had a glider. You can argue that The Mechanist and Teo might have arrived into Omashu very recently , and that's why he's the only one flying. That would also explain how it reached the ears of the spy as something strange. So that's it, problem solved, right? Wrong! If that were the case, they'd still be newsworthy and exotic, everybody would be looking upwards every single time Teo flew by, everyone would be pestering The Mechanist 24/7 asking for gliders, and the instant a 2nd glider appears (Aang's) some entitled people might even get angry that someone else got a glider before them (as they would assume The Mechanist made Aang's glider too, because nobody else possesses that technology). It does not work, it can't work, it completely destroyed my immersion, it felt anti-natural. If you want to fix that, add a bunch of flying kids, and the spy arrives there following rumours of Jet. Instead of "There's a flying kid in Omashu", "There's someone actively attacking fire nation spies in the outskirts of Omashu, it might be the avatar." Similar premises, Zuko gets there by chance, following a lead that has nothing to do with the Avatar, and they run into each other by happenstance. So the rest can work almost the same way, except that there would be several kids flying, not just Teo, it doesn't work, it'll never work.
The cartoon was one of the best pieces of literature I’ve ever participated in… the live action I skipped because I could just feel that it wasn’t going to be good.
As a One Piece and Avatar fan, it broke my heart to see the butchering of Avatar. Matt Owens is truly the goat. He is such a one piece fan. He is quoted telling Oda how much One Piece meant to him and how he was the right person for the job. You could tell from just the behind the scenes how much everyone loved the manga or anime. Emily Rudd is a huge fan and was a popular fan casting for years before the show. I have not interacted with the Avatar fan base at large but I think Japanese anime has larger and more loyal fanbases that understand a work . I always saw the avatar community as a bunch of people enjoying the show while as the One Piece fandom is a more critical collective in a community.
Along with Emily Rudd, Mackenyu also grew up with One Piece. He even almost refused to accept the role until he was told he was auditioning to play Zoro, who is his favorite character.
17:43 you know I’ve seen quite a few people say this but I didn’t really feel like he was flying here. He was just gliding downward using air bending not flying from what I could see.
Them removing Sokka’s sexism actually made me a bit sad when I first heard about it - I first watched ATLA when I was in college, so my perspective might be a little bit different than those who watched the show for the first time as kids, but that moment where Sokka comes to the Kyoshi Warriors and kowtows to Suki asking her to train him was the moment I absolutely fell in love with his character. And it totally makes sense why Suki would develop a crush on him, because the ability to accept being humbled, admit when you’re wrong, and apologize is an excellent trait in a romantic partner! That’s part of why I really like them as a couple, they both seem to help each other grow as individuals. I didn’t get that at all from the live action, it all seemed to be like “oh he/she is hot and can fight, let’s kiss”. Y’all are right, they definitely could have replaced the sexism with a warrior’s pride thing if the writers had just thought it through, but also. Let characters be problematic and go through arcs where they get better!! Especially characters who are basically kids - God knows we all did stuff when we were young teens that we look back on as adults and go “oh jeez that was an asshole thing I did”.
It's such an unfortunate trend these days: when writers try to write flawless characters they also end up writing flat, uninteresting characters who's actions feel unmotivated and don't make sense.
Even though I still don't like the OP live action, I see how well they succeeded. Especially from a series people said was "un-liveactionable." I've seen like 95% percent praise for the LA, and I did not have high hopes for the series lol. So I was pleasantly surprised and I'm happy about it's success, despite disliking it.
As long as LA one piece had that one piece spirit in it, i was always going to like it. Fck the visual effects....i just wanted them to get the story right and the feelings conveyed perfectly. And they succeeded.
@@sabelotoda2 I knew I wasn't gonna like it before watching it. I'm just not a fan of live action remakes in general, and I don't like when the source material gets changed unless it's an improvement. There were a couple of things that fell short for me and some others that felt a little out of character. (For example, when Luffy calls him Captain Usopp to make him look cool to the villagers.) Usopp is my favorite Straw Hat besides Luffy and I think they could have done a little better with him. Nami and Zoro also felt a little colder and less fun than they did in the anime/manga. It's always little things like that that bug me.
29:45 This Disney "I want" scene is what killed my enthusiasm for the show. I forced myself to watch a couple more episodes after, but I just couldn't finish the season. My disappointment in the writing couldn't be saved by the acting or production.
4:09 was exactly me!!!! I remember watching the live action with my fingers on my temples in frustration with how bad the show was becoming. I genuinely wanted to stop watching. Some of The music didn’t feel like it came from the world, the story isn’t consistent, the way they portrayed the past avatars seemed insulting. They’re writing and shooting season 2&3 at once. That means if they didn’t improve writing, they can’t exactly fix it for season 3 since it’ll already be shot 💀 Loving the video!
Glad you liked the video! Yeah that's a bit concerning that they're shooting both at once. I mean it makes sense logistically but it means there's zero opportunity to course correct if something happens 😵 Not holding my breath but still holding onto the possibility that it could improve.
I love the analogies! I truly agree that Oda is the keel and that the Avatar creators would have been that for the Avatar adaptation. Also, Matt Owens is definitely the Franky.
Thank you so much! We missed hearing from you guys in the comments honestly. It feels good to be back making things and having conversations with people who love stories too.
5:50, Na bro it sucks and you should dunk on it for an hour an a half. We need to dunk on poor yet very expensive storytelling or they will keep making more of them.
The collaboration between the writers and original author needs to be supportive, or at least people from the writing team who are superfans (like Matt Owens on One Piece). They should strongly argue for the integrity of the original material to be paramount, as opposed to people who want to capitalize on media trends and end up disappointing everyone with terribly written dialogue and direction.
It spoiled TLOK stuff. The focus on Kyoshi instead of Roku was stupid. Sokka was non-existent. Monk Gyatso lost his important and impact because he was in every scene (hyperbole). I could see the teleprompter in front of Katara. The actors were wasted.
1:05 Adapting an incredibly wellwritten story is like playing Jenga: pull at one small, seemingly insignificant piece, and the entire thing might shift or even come down.
If anything what these two lives actions show is the importance of having not only the creator of the source material but also people that care about and respect the original work.
I havent the animated show but it was a struggle to watch every next episode because of the dialog and the acting of the main trio. I only cared about the bad guys especially Zuko. They have a more interesting arc.
One Piece Live Action are made with an ACTUAL reason, which is the worldwide marketing of the story itself. While Avatar Aang are just made for like... what?? Pandering to above 20 y.o bro and sis 😂 (no offense, but its true)
When the live action got to omashu and I realized that they were condensing so many storylines into an unsatisfying hodgepodge and completely switching what happened to who I stopped watching ahah.
Interesting 😄 totally valid opinion, but would love to know what specifically makes you feel that way. Would be very interested to see from your perspective
@@FrameOfMindBros the one piece characters feels a bit awkward and kinda force, while the atla characters are not perfect, they don't feel awkward to watch. Idk if that makes sense, but that's how I felt watching both shows.
