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AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - LIVE ACTION (S2) â ZUTARA
Avatar: The Last Airbender
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Thought on S2 of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender
Tl;dr â I really liked it and though they improved a lot from season 1!
Here follows the long version. General spoiler warning for the whole season 2.
Absolute highlights of the season
âș Dallas Liu as Zuko â once again.
Dallas was already great in S1, and he has only improved in S2. I find myself interested in every second that Zuko is on screen. This is of course also due to the fact that the character is inherently interesting and complex, so somehow all his scenes work, whatever the situation and whoever else is in it.
âș Miya Cech as Toph â the new addition to the team.
Miya's portrayal of Toph simply works â she's not 1:1 the same as the cartoon, but I believe within the context of this series she is a convincing depiction for a live action version of Toph.
âș The dynamic in Team Avatar!
This was a bit of a weakness in S1, because it felt like the gaang didn't spend enough time together to grow closer. This has absolutely changed in S2, and their friendship and bond is really convincing.
Some things I really liked
âș Visuals: Sets, costumes & CGI
The sets were beautiful, even more so this season than the last one because they used more practical sets this time. The costumes were well made and looked really good for the most part, and the CGI of the bending and the animals looked great, too!
Some favourites:
Zuko's scar looks so. much. better.
Ba Sing Se really looks impressive wherever you look.
The sea serpent looks amazing!
The Crystal Cave in the finale also was a great set, and was a worth background for this huge bending battle.
Aang seeing the previous Avatars in the Avatar state as a visual for the final episode was well done.
The library looked great, and especially that sky display thingie that Sokka found.
âș They had some really funny scene transitions!
My two favourite examples:
Bumi saying "Is it time for tea?" and then the scene cuts to Iroh in the fields.
Toph suggesting to walk straight into the prison, and Sokka replies "What? No! What maniac would do that?" and it cuts to Azula who basically just did that.
âș Azula is a manace
I wasn't convinced by Azula last season, but I am absolutely now. Elizabeth Yu nails her attitue without any doubt, and the show made sure to show us that she's absolutely dangerous and deadly. I don't even want to start counting the number of people she has killed this season.
âș Katara's caring nature
They didn't have much time for that in S1, but now they make it an integral part of Katara's character. In addition to that she's more confident now, and the writing and acting for her character has certainly improved as well.
âș Toph's struggle with her family
I think it was a great idea to have Toph's main confrontation be with her mother, and not two random guys who mean nothing to Toph whatsover.
âș Sokka's dynamic with everyone
Sokka is such a lively person, that it's fun to see him interact with anyone! I love seeing him being supportive of Aang, messing around with Katara, building his friendship with Toph, connecting with bot Sai and Zei â and of course his ongoing issue with liking Suki, but still remembering Yue. These are all fun and compelling interactions to watch.
âș Jet
Jet not magically changing off screen and become a better guy for some unknown reasons, and instead just having him become more broke by the war makes so much sense. It's sad to see and his ending is really tragic, but it also worked very well. It was a very moving end, giving him a last heroic action.
âș Conflict within Team Avatar
There are a couple of episode in the OG series like Bato of the Water Tribe and The Chase where the team splits up because they get angry at each other etc. And the team is also split up at the end of S2 in the OG for quite random reasons. For NATLA now to combine 1) the conflict with 2) the individual plotlines they have been following all season with 3) the manipulation of Long Feng to end up with 4) the divided team was a really impressive set-up.
âș The Ember Island Players
Using the visuals of the Ember Island Players for Zuko's feaver dream was a great way to integrate that part into the show.
âș Amita's purpose
I think Amita was a great addition to the story, because together with Sai she gave the refugees a face that stayed relevant. Having her tell us how often she already had to flee, only to see her then having to witness how the Fire Nation soldiers walk into Ba Sing Se... that really hit me, how difficult and painful that must have been. It was a really good choice to show that reaction.
âș Aang's mercy
Having Aang be shot by Azula because he showed her mercy and not because his magical transformation was too slow was a huge improvement to the original in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the S3 finale then.
âș The removal of the Guru
I'll be honest: I never liked the Guru. I like the way that his episode explained the chakras, but the way Aang was speeding through opening them never felt believable to me in the cartoon. Even worse, it only matters when the writers want it to, and at the end of S3 it was forgotten. Removing that side plot, along with the other artificial plot to have Sokka visit his father for a tiny bit, was the right thing to do.
... I'm sure there is more, but I gotta stop somewhere.
The few things that didn't work for me
âș The Avatar State
My biggest gripe is probably how they handled the Avatar state and Aang being conflicted about it. The main issue here is that the problem isn't really shown in the story â Aang and Sokka only talk about it, but they didn't seem to have the time to show the problem, and that weakens it overall. Furthermore, later in the season when Aang goes into the Avatar state for a short time, it's too short, and he gets out of it too easily. This should have taken longer, and either Aang of his friends should have struggled more to get him out of it. As it is, it didn't feel as frightening as it should have.
âș Ty Lee & Mai
It's an improvement from S1, but to me it still feels they are underused. I know that it's building up to something in S3, and I hope it'll pay off then, but for now they don't shine enough as personalities or acting wise to really make an impression. Their background and relationship with Azula is also not explored well enough to make them more interesting. In addition, they are side characters, so they don't get many chances to make an impression, and that's unfortunate. I will say that their fight scene was quite cool though.
âș Aaaand some minor nitpicks:
I didn't really like the portrayal of Yangchen in the library. I feel the actress was barely changing her facial expressions, and was mostly just standing there. I don't know if the actress or the director wasn't paying attention, but I noticed how I got irritated by it after watching her talk for a while.
I don't think the actor playing Zuko as a child really looked anything like him.
The woman at the wall of Ba Sing Se who was screaming about remembering the dead from the Siege â that felt too staged for me. It was designed to make Iroh feel bad, and that's it. It had no real in-universe reason to happen there and then, in this way, and it was a bit cringe to watch.
So yeah, all in all I have very few complaints. The show is great, that's all.
