Can someone tell me how the Netflix adaptation of ATLA moving the painted lady to season 2 is doing anything BUT reducing Katara to a ship and villanising Aang?
Because the entire point of the Painted Lady is to show how Katara will ALWAYS fight Injustice EVEN if it is for the 'enemies' to deconstruct the notion that the place that you are born in makes you inherently 'good' or 'bad', so how does making it occur in a EARTH KINGDOM setting demonstrate that? How does Katara saving Earth kingdom citizens (who are on her side of the war) convey this message? Because she helped fire nation citizens after the fact she heard Jet plan an attack on them? (Because that's in a completely different context her helping them with no obligation).
All this did was allow that scene where she bumps into Zuko and he has a memory of watching the play where the Blue Spirit saves the painted ladies.
And making Aang YELLING at Katara for the painted lady bit just destroys this character.
Im not going to say "oh Zutara is the spawn of that is evil and anyone who likes it is bad too!" Because I LIKE IT TOO but its clear to me that this show is wasting-what is already a limited amount of time due to the 8 episode curse-on mischaractering what made the original character so important.
Its important that Katara fights Injustice as a fire nation citizens to demonstrate how her compassion to those suffering doesnt have a limit.
Its important that Aang snapping at Katara happens AFTER losing Appa in a desert to convey to the audience how torn up he is by it because HE WOULD NEVER YELL AT HIS FRIENDS
Its important that Zuko DOESNT steal from the pregnant lady to SUBTLY (⚠️⚠️) convey to the audience that Zuko to his core has ALWAYS been a good kid, just like when he spoke out against the needless death of foot soldiers, just like when he refused to fight his father out of respect because he NEVER lost his honour.
NLA:ATLA is a perfect demonstration of how the removal of 'filler episodes' to reduce seasons to eight 40-60 minute episodes is fundamentally flawed in trying to flesh out characters because even if the actual runtime length is the same (ITS NOT), the episode format still requires parts of character development to be lost (such as the noticeable absence of Appa in the cast and arc of Aang snapping, having a breakdown, regaining hope and then coming to terms that finding Appa comes second to his Avatar duties).
Call me a hater, say I'm Anti-Zutara (im not), but this show to me is a perfect representation of the nostalgia fatigue I'm having (DISNEY) of changing fundamental aspects that either 1. Worsen arcs (like Zuko's redemption) or 2. Completely alter the narrative which at that point, why not just make a completely different IP.
Here's an (OG) Zutara clip to calm down
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