The live action Avatar for Netflix adaption changing Sokka and Katara’s ages is...less than good actually.
Like part of what made Sokka and Katara being the ages they were in the original was Katara having to grow up so fast and become one of the ‘mothers’ of her village at around the age of 10 after the death of her own mother. It makes the “I haven’t done this since I was a kid” line she has while penguin sledding with Aang in the first episode hit all the harder.
Not to mention Sokka growing up the older brother and ‘chief protector’ of their village in the Southern Water Tribe was what contributed to the sexist attitude he held and then shed over the course of Book One. And like was the case with Katara, it makes the line in ‘The Runaway’ about “sometimes I can’t even remember what my mother looked like, and when I think of her I just picture Katara’s face” again hit all the harder.
Then there’s the issue of Sokka and Katara being the ages they are being parallels of Zuko and Azula respectively. The scene in episode one of Sokka and Zuko both suiting up for battle juxtaposed up against each other is evident of this and the more subtle character details regarding Azula and Katara (they’re both 14, took on further roles within their families after the loss of their mothers) but each down a widely different path.
They could of course remedy this by making Azula the older sibling as well, but I think that would completely muck up Zuko’s character arc of him being an older sibling with his right to the throne taken from him. Thus subtracting from his connection to Iroh a bit.
So yeah I’m not a fan
Thanks again to @andalwaysdance for being my soundboard on this
I didn't know Netflix was gonna change ages... And I completely agree it's a bad idea.
The entire show is, at it's core, about children of war - all the character arcs revolve around what the war did to these kids and how they helped each other overcome the worst of it.
Aang is the only kid in the entire show who had a childhood, and that makes him even more of a hope to the world than being the Avatar.
