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my final thoughts on the atla movie

after letting it brew for a while, discussing a bit with others and reading other people's opinions on it, i feel like i have fully solidified what my thoughts are on it (spoiler, theyre not good)

im focusing more on the characters here, since everyone has already done a wonderful job dissecting the plot of the movie (and how it serves no purpose + the holes it has)

long post ahead so beware, everything is under the cut to prevent spoilers + to not have a whole wall of yapping out there. im gonna be sectioning this in specific points i want to talk about (both what i liked and what i didnt like in the movie)

disclaimer: i am NOT gonna be arguing about zutara here. i am a shipper and im not gonna stop liking them, and they are tagged because frankly its relevant to the topic

everything below the cut, NOT spoiler free !!! movie screenshots added aswell !!!

getting the short part out of the way:

THE GOOD

- zuko's adult design

frankly, out of all the characters, i believe zuko has the best design. a detail I specially like about it is the hair: unlike his predecessors zuko wears a looser bun, his hair is not as straight and he wears bangs. i find this decision quite fitting, first because it visually sets him apart from the other fire lords, its different, feels more relaxed, less strict (= he is not like those that came before him). and i also find it appropiate for his character and a natural development from the messier look in book 3, with his hair always in his face. its an appropiate development

also, in this scene specifically i love that instead of the flamey dark room he has an open space with a lot of light and is surrounded by a lot of advisors/governament officials/idontknowwhattheyrecalledimsorry

(reference here of sozin, azulon and ozai)

in terms of actual looks he still looks like himself. zuko has always been the more anime-ish out of everyone in the gaang, so this animation and drawing style is very appropiate for him

and... this is it ._. i have no other good points to bring up beyond the animation, which we have all established that is amazing and beautiful and they did a great job with it. but this is pretty much it for anything else

THE BAD

- zuko's nonexistant lightning scar

this was a terrible decision. usually im not too picky on things like these because i understand that with all the rush and the way animators are permanently overworked in the industry, its not unheard of that details (even important ones) get overlooked. if zuko only had a couple shots shirtless i would brush it off as a mistake and i wouldnt think much of it, we are all human, etc etc

however, considering that a good chunk (if not most) of his time on screen looks like these screenshots, i am inclined to believe this was an intentional decision

and honestly, it annoys me. zuko's scar has so much symbolic weight for his redemption arc (the culmination of it, his last step to redemption, going against his sister to save the life of someone his family wanted to and tried to exterminate, facing his decisions and his consequences head on, willing to die for it), and it ties him to two very important characters in his arc: katara (his parallel) and aang (his mirror). choosing not to add this one physical characteristic is severing those ties, effectively disconnecting him from them, and erasing all the personal work he has done to become who he is

and i can't help but think that this was done purely because of zutara, because it's a very visible conection between them and very relevant in their relationship (both platonically and romantically), and of course, if they're gonna have him shirtless for so long they cannot possibly give more content to the shippers (how dare we).... ironically, this damages aang's character too because it eliminates part of their mirroring, but there doesnt seem to be actual, real care and thought put into his characterization either, so what's one more disservice to the protagonist, right?

- aang's adult design

i deeply, deeply dislike his design and i think its the worst out of all of them. i already didnt like it in TLOK but i think i dislike this one even more. it feels like there is absolutely no intention or thought put into it just muscles = hot = more views

he is a monk. we have seen what the monks looked like, we have seen what his parents could have looked like, so why does he only resemble Generic Anime Man #27 (minus the eyes, the only feature they stayed true to) instead of them?

i can give it a bit more grace considering he is the avatar and he needs to know how to fight, but he is not like korra. korra had always been shown to favor offensive fighting styles and element choices, raw strength and a good punch, so it would make sense that she is very strong and buff. aang, on the other hand, was always shown favoring air bending and defense over offense. so what is the reasoning behind his looks now other than fanservice that makes little sense for the character + plot + lore?

yes it is an attractive design, yes i do like attractive character designs. but i also like meaningful design that shows the thought, the care and the genuine interest that the artists put behind it. this does not show that

- aang's character portrayal

this movie does a good job at one thing: solidifying a lot of the critique towards aang's character evolution. and the best/worst part is that it seems entirely unintentional

up until now most of the main critiques towards him were centered around his selfishness and disrespect and his lack of accountability from the narrative (critiques mostly centered in atla season 3 and what we know of him in tlok). and this movie managed to make him look even worse for:

-bringing his friends (for no reason, because they only served as props) to a mission that he did not know the full extent of, putting them in danger more than once

-refusing to listen to his friends' reluctance towards this suspicious dude they have know for all of 5 minutes (and that somehow has managed to offend every one of them)

-telling his girlfriend of god knows how many years (also a victim of genocide, also the last of her kind, his number 1 supporter from the very begining, the person that has always been by his side, the one that always had the most faith in him and always tried to understand him and help him) "no you dont understand me, this dude that i have know since yesterday gets me you dont"

-getting his friends killed

the impression i get from aang as an adult is that he has not matured and has only grown to be even more selfish and self-absorbed and that he has no real love nor respect for those that are supposed to be his friends and family. and, of course and as always, there are no consequences for his actions. no one is mad that they died indirectly because of him, no one mentions the danger they were put in for no reason. no one is genuinely furious with him for acting the way he did. the narrative refuses to awknowledge that he is not acting like a good person

- katara's character portrayal

this is the part that hurts me the most, because katara is my favorite character and seeing it get butchered over and over (for no reason other than that she is no longer relevant because she has accomplished the intended task of being the trophy for the hero) makes me sad

in this movie, i am especially annoyed by the fact that katara, who is traumatized after witnessing the death of her mother when she was just a child, now had to bring her own brother back to life (because again, aang indirectly killed him), along with her other two friends. realistically, this should be a tremendously important point for her character and if the narrative cared about her in the slightest we would get to at least see how it affected her

but no, she is not angry, she is not upset, she is not scared. this was not another traumatic event at all (even though when you spell it out like this it seems huge, what do you mean sokka, toph and zuko basically died? what do you mean katara had to play necromancer? this part of the movie is minimal and inconsequential) and it is brushed under the rug because adressing the negative effect of this event would necessarily imply that aang gets consequences for his actions, that people get mad at him, that he is held accountable and that the writting recognizes that he has fucked up, done things wrong and been inconsiderate. and we cannot have the golden boy go through that, right?

this is just another example of katara's character getting bulldozed for the sake of avoiding repercussions for aang.

this obviously means that her characterization is entirely inconsistant with what is introduced to us in the original show. back in atla she is presented as someone very strong willed, that does not accept disrespect from anyone (not even from figures of authority), that has solid morals and an unshakeable sense of justice, that stands her ground no matter what, that fights for what is right. the katara we originally meet is a fighter by necessity, but a diplomat and an activist by choice.

we see none of that

all we get here is a girlfriend that is always reassuring her boyfriend, someone that hardly reacts when disrespected by said boyfriend and by a stranger and that doesnt speak up when those that she loves are mistreated. who is this?

- interactions among the gaang

near nonexistant. to put it simply

zuko, toph and sokka are all no more than background decor for the nostalgia, to make sure that the fanservice baiting hits every fan and for marketing purposes. that is all. katara's purpose is very little beyond "cutesy girlfriend" so she is a shinier decor. a fancier lamp, i guess

we do not see the closeness of katara and sokka's relationship as siblings after the war, we do not get to see aang and toph's bantery friendship (and how it has developed over the years, since toph still seems to be quite fond of him as an elderly woman in tlok), we do not get to see anything positive about kataang's romantic relationship (and i mean positive as in, healthy romantic sweet interactions that would made me think "aw they can be such a cute couple", the most we got is a couple kisses... and then katara being motherly)

and, most of all and again very obviously, we do not get any platonic zutara interactions. i am not asking for shipping crumbs mind you, i am asking for the canonical very strong bond and friendship to be shown. these two are established to be close by the end of atla, they have shared emotional moments, they understood each other very well and they became very good friends in the end. why do we have to be robbed of a genuinely beautiful friendship for the fear of a ship? why cant we see how they would interact and develop as adults? youre telling me that mrs "i would use spirit water to physically erase your trauma" and mr "i would take a lightning strike to the chest to save your life" are not still close in their 20s? they dont have contact with each other? they dont have a single conversation for the entire duration of the movie? (yes i am fixating on this because i adore the ship and the characters and i know most about them, but theres a lot to say about aaaaaall of them)

FINAL WORDS

i would have gladly gone to see it in theaters upon release but considering that:

A) it ended up being the dissapointing mess it is

B) paramount pulled it out of theaters only to put it on an exclusive platform not avaiable in my country

it is not worth it. full stop. just watch edits