"we felt that the Gaang harming the small business owner known as the cabbage guy was sending the wrong message about aspirational entrepreneurship, so we tweaked it to let the gaang support the man to take out a microfinance loan to set up a kiosk in ba sing se's second ring"
The cabbage vendor ended up becoming a multi-national capitalist oligarch. The gaang terrorizing his petite bourgeois ass was an act of proletarian praxis.
The comparison to Game of Thrones sounded a death knell.
that fucking show has done irreparable damage to fantasy media
tbf I don't think GoT will represent 1/100th of the damage LotR did to fantasy media (though for very different reasons that don't reflect as negatively on LotR). Capitalism loves fads, so the influence will fade to nearly the level of background noise in a decade or two (assuming we don't see some monumental event like WW3, which may shunt or perpetuate it depending on how it's absorbed).
With respect, have you looked at fantasy media of the last half-century? The reception of Tolkein's work became one of the greatest magnifications of the problems in "genre writing" in the entire history of the concept, with endless, endless imitation that has so over-saturated the genre that it is legitimately difficult to imagine "fantasy" that doesn't use recycled Tolkein-esque tropes. Ironically, you can even see some of those issues in GoT, though it mainly has the issue of being directionless, misogynistic smut.
I strongly encourage you to read literally any pre-Tolkein fantasy to see what a difference it has.
Conan is a big one, and its DNA can still be seen in modern Tolkienien fantasy
Honestly I wish we could go back to fantasy about giant hunky dudes killing evil pointy bearded sorcerers with the help of scantily clad warrior ladies.
I think you are wildly underrating the creativity of pre-Tolkien fantasy. I personally have great affection for the writing of Lord Dunsany and there are some people who really like the elements of awe in Lovecraft (to paraphrase Ramsey Campbell), but it's a wide field that I'm not really an expert on.
That set the standard for low magic midevil europe to be the default fantasy setting. That and DnD, which took heavy inspiration from that.
Why take a beloved animated series and re make it live action? It was fine! Please come up with new ideas!
Korra was good though. I don't care if other people feel the same or I get downvotes, I thought it was a solid show.
Legend of Korra was bad from second 1 of episode 1 and it never got better. There are no redeeming qualities anywhere within it.
The de-mystification and industrialization of mysterious elite techniques like lightning or metal bending into sweatshop labor is potentially fascinating, but the show absolutely bungles it. The worldbuilding also suffers from too short a gap between the two shows for it to make sense imo.
I don't think the problem is really the gap. It doesn't seem unreasonable for people to invent cars and radios in the gap between the shows. The real problem is that America popped out of nowhere as a result of a melting pot of a variety of Asian inspired cultures. It's like the creators thought America is just the natural result of any melting pot, rather than the result of a European led melting pot.
It does that classic thing of fucking up the world building so you get engaged trying to fill in the gaps yourself.
Anyways I've got a head canon that lightning bending was restricted to the royal family because they executed anyone else who figured it out (like the color purple back in the day) and Zuko decided he wouldn't or couldn't pursue people who did it in Republic City
korra has terrible politics but i like a decent amount of the characters and think it's a culturally important show that helped pave the way for a lot of queerness in kids shows that might not have otherwise been there. (i know representation politics can suck, but i think it's good to have kids shows where the kids just see queerness as a normalized thing in day to day life)
i think it's good to have kids shows where the kids just see queerness as a normalized thing in day to day life
I agree, which is why I don't think Legend of Korra adding ambiguous queerness in the last 30 seconds of the last episode is good enough to count as a real redeeming quality
I thought the animation was pretty but that the politics were thoroughly neoliberal. As with Marvelslop, whenever you have "left wing" villains, you have to make them do something unquestionably evil, like punch a baby, so that it can be said of them "their heart was in the right place, but they went too far!!!"
It made chuds really mad by having one second of gay in it.
Zaheer was what the dumbest guy you've ever met thinks an anarchist is. His writing was pure brainworms.
ok you got me there he was pretty cool if you just pretend what he's saying and doing makes sense
I haven't seen it in a while so idk maybe you're right. I enjoyed him at the time I watched it
Lol we can't downvote on this instance, but sure thing, you can enjoy it
Korra has very shitty lib politics. Season 1 was anti-communist fluff. Season 2 broke all the pre-established rules of its predecessor, Season 3 was pure lib view of anarchy and also torture scene, Season 4 was the only one that wasn't complete dogshit, but thats not saying much since it's also the queerbaiting season.
Avatar tlab also had some lib stuff but at least it understood basic storytelling and narrative framing.
Of course if you enjoyed it, more power to you. I didn't unfortunately.
We're gonna make a change so that Katara's already a water bending master because in the origional show she faced constant sexism in the northern water tribe and we think we want to tone that down.
We're gonna make a change to the Emperor and the Dai Li so they resemble Xi Xing Ping and the Chinese communist Secret Police. Additionally we're also changing Lake Laogai into a concentration camp for the Sand benders who we've decided to call the Yuhgurs.
We're gonna make subtle changes to the Fire Nation to tone down the historical allegory that portrays them as Japanese Imperialists. To that effect, we're softening their image so they'll be perceived as liberators to the poor brainwashed and oppressed people of the Earth Kingdom.
We're gonna make a minor alteration to the storyline regarding the Airbenders with regards to ensuring historical accuracy by making the Airbenders a religious order that Aang was the born the religious head of, and that that it was Earth Bender death squads that exterminated them who in turn forced a young Aang to flee into that ball of ice.
But actually that ball of Ice is actually the fire nation, and he's there to petition them to reveal to the world the terrible war crimes of the Earth Kingdom.
Here's the deal Jack I'm the most pro-Earth-Kingdom firelord since FDR
Wow, it's almost like the characters come from a society which predisposes them to certain roles and behaviors which could provide the basis for character growth when those expectations are upended. You might even be able to pad out some episodes that way.
No, good TV is when they're frantically sprinting from one disaster to another with no time for dialogue.
This is why I hate many modern streaming shows - if it’s not a disaster they have to fix, it’s it’s a big tragedy for “character development”.
God it would be so funny if they made Aang kill during the final fight just so it’ll be gritty
They'd have the Fire Nation just be like the USSR so it's okay.
They already have anti-China shit in the original show. The part with the Dai Li conspiracy and brainwashing.
Actually even before that, the Air nation being 100% based on Western exoticism of Tibet, which apparently means racially predisposed to being peaceful spiritual nomads (who live in one of several settled places nonetheless for some reason) and get genocided because their reincarnation prophecy challenges political goals of empire.
IIRC in some interview the show creators even pull out the line "hate the political party, not the people" when the topic came up
They're taking characterization from everybody and giving Aang a vision to move the plot along? Way to throw shade at the series, ya fucking hack.
"We're gonna improve the writing by flattening the characters and using a cliched plot device!"
Anyway, I don't feel excited for a remake of the show in any form. It didn't need an adaptation. Heck, it doesn't even need an expansion or a sequel.
It just feels like they're smoothing out the edges to make atla an extended universe to fit into Paramount's collection of franchises.
I'm glad people of color are getting work and visibility though.
Also why would you draw comparisons to Game of Thrones, an adaptation infamous for the showrunners ruining it by deviating from the source material?
Also why would you draw comparisons to Game of Thrones, an adaptation infamous for the showrunners ruining it by deviating from the source material?
"I didn't finish watching the series; why, what happens?"
-- Live-action ATLA showrunners, probably
Please don't get me started. I swear if I had a white board I'd
its disappointing because there is some great character development, good film-making in general. The 3rd season of Korra is really well done. They just add in their shitty ideology everywhere. Wholesome war profiteer, wholesome war profiteer, evil man wants equality, anarchism when no society, wholesome cops, its a lot of shit.
We couldn't just make it a kids show - also we had to "tone down" some things.
"a live action adaptation of an animation is going to suck like every other adaptation (including
) has sucked"Hexbears:
A Netflix live adaptation of an anime-inspired show, that has already had a very shitty live adaptation. Plus the showrunners apparently want it to be Gambo Thrones. This shit was doomed from the start and whoever suggested it should have been fired.
The One Piece adaptation was pretty good, idk what you're talking about
People like the live action one piece because it was faithful to the source material except for jaded girlboss nami and cool guy "I need a drink" Zoro.
But the aesthetic of one piece is so ridiculous that's it's just inherently suited for animation. It looks incredibly silly, and if it were to come out on its own (in a world where one piece didn't already exist), people would be baffled about wtf they were watching.
I actually like the changes in characterization, I think they work well. There are also many technical aspects that I think are remarkable in the composition and sometimes the choreography.
It looks incredibly silly, and if it were to come out on its own (in a world where one piece didn't already exist), people would be baffled about wtf they were watching.
All of this is true, but none of it furthers your point. I love how silly it is, that's legitimately a core part of the appeal to me. There are pluses and minuses on both sides, but I honestly like the adaptation more than the part of the source material that it adapts (especially the oft-disparaged anime). I miss the better-developed Buggy crew and such, for instance, and I think the Gum-Gum powers really suffer from the mediocre CG rendering, but the ridiculousness of Garp on his dog-mast ship throwing a cannonball like a shotput is wonderful, and Luffy taking the impact looks surprisingly good.
More things should look weird and silly, and if the artists behind this adaptation made an original project, I'd be excited to watch it.
Ngl I haven't watched any One Piece and saw 10 minutes of the Netflix adaptation and thought it looked like shit.
I really enjoyed the live action and haven't seen the anime. To be fair, the initial episodes were very jarring and somewhat baffling but I didn't like it because it was faithful to the source material.
I liked it pretty well. Monkey D's acting wasn't the greatest but it was improving a bit between the first episode and the last.
idk what is wrong with showrunners, it is like they have never enjoyed a TV series in their life, you don't have to race towards the finish line in only 8 episodes, you can pace yourselves
Percy Jackson did this just now by kind of just having Percy realise the next thing to do out of nowhere. They did this every episode after episode one, sometimes multiple times per episode. Just chill. Let it happen. It's OK. Calm down.
idk what is wrong with showrunners, it is like they have never enjoyed a TV series in their life, you don't have to race towards the finish line in only 8 episodes, you can pace yourselves
I've gotten really into a niche Japanese media genre called Iyashikei, wherein there's barely, if any plot. The plot that's there has almost no tension. And the tension that is there is resolved immediately with minimal friction.
My favorite is Non Non Biyori, which is about a group of kids who live in the Japanese countryside. And they kinda just... Hang out. There's no overarching narrative, no lessons to learn. It's a gag comedy in some respects, but the humor is more sensible chuckle then gut-bustingly hilarious.
The entire point of this stuff is to slow down and chill out.
I Wanna see western show runners heads fucking explode, that there's media out here doing the exact opposite of what they think is "good writing.
Can't race towards the finish line, when there's no finish line to race to
I love slice-of-life anime, I'll watch whatever you mentioned if it's good.
I watched Barakamon and its similar, just nothing happening in rural Japan in the best way possible.
Midnight Diner is one i find very relaxing. It's a little funny, a little dramatic, but the stakes are never very high as much as i can remember. Just a nice little show about a late night izakaya.
Mass financialization of studios and a need for high returns on investment to shareholders. That's it. You're not allowed to take risks as a showrunner or writer, because that might not pan out for the investors, which means you can't really make art because you're trapped in a formula that's been done so many times that there's legitimately no way to do anything new or interesting. And you can't do anything original because there's no existing market for it, so you've got to adapt something that already exists.
They won't finance more than 8 episodes (looking at you, Amazon), so you have to condense a storyline that won't fit into 8 episodes somehow, and you do that by hacking away at the source material until it's barely recognizable. In the process, every writer working for you is desperately trying to leave their mark on the final product so they can get some amount of creativity out of their systems, so now you've got 80 new subplots that they're practically demanding get in the show when you already don't have time to tell the story that already exists.
The end result is a mishmash of nonsensical plot elements, characters with no arcs (because there's no time to have them resolve their flaws, and focus groups show that viewers prefer characters once they've resolved their flaws so we'll just remove that element entirely!), abysmal pacing, and a final product that costs $300 million and looks like utter shit. Rinse and repeat until even the most treat-brained of viewers decides that this is a road too far and stop paying for the streaming services, at which point the whole industry will collapse under its own rotten weight and new TV content will be exclusively reality TV or gameshows.
Sounds like a pretty good assessment
Incidentally the same things goes in my industry because any deviation from the norm needs extensive business justification, and there is just no getting through to managers who are pretty comfortable with the way things are done already
Basically the challenge that is running a series when yoiu don't know if you'll be greenlit for more than 1 or 2 seasons. That forces showrunners to tell compact and poorly paced story arcs.
These shows are basically competing with tiktok and other entertainment algorithms, so they have to put something on the screen, and make you stick to it. And it if fails to get your attention, the data metrics will show.
I had trouble starting My Jobless Reincarnation and Freiren beyond Journey's End; but these are some of the only shows that I feel are both chockfull of character and plot moments, while giving fantastic breathing room for all of their character arcs. It shows a degree of confidence in the material that a lot of people do not have nowadays.
We're going to take this beloved story and remove everything that made it charming, I'm sure everyone is going to dig it!
That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, "Let's make a detour and go ride the elephant koi"
It's been a while since I've seen ATLA, but wasn't goofing off like that a major aspect of Aang's personality?
Just completely throwing away the characters in all but name and looks, and substituting them with bland husks with no personality.
Yeah, the entire point is that he's unwilling to accept his responsibility as the Avatar, so he goes on these side adventures to goof off.
Plus, this serves the incredibly important function of giving the show an excuse to flesh out its world building.
Yeah, he's coping with the reality that his life was left behind a hundred years ago when he accidentally sealed himself in ice for that long. He's going to places he'd visited and witnesses how they changed in his absence. He's trying to do those fun things because he wants to feel like how things were before he was revealed as the avatar.
Say what you will about the themes, but they knew what they were doing with the characterization.
These are not the reason it’s going to be bad.
It’s going to be bad because it will try and be gritty in a setting that is goofy for the most part and a BEAR is a weird animal because it’s just a plain old bear.
Yes, avatar can be serious at times, but the characters.
These are not the reason it’s going to be bad.
It's going to be bad for the reasons you say, but removing the stories and character arcs that deal with sexism and patriarchy is one of the reasons it will be bad. I'm sorry, but I stand by that.
I don’t think any adaptation would live up to expectations.
As soon as you put a kid in avatar costumes, I think it won’t feel the same as the cartoon Aang had. I actually think the medium of animation helps the show a lot beyond heat the story and characters.
The shots of the actors in their costumes feel… costumey… and it doesn’t really feel whole. It’s like the King Charles coronation photos, with all the modern day cameras they feel underwhelming.
wouldnt it be funny if this was all from a producer or whatev thats just really bad at interviews and they're overstating what thry did to make it seem more enticing/their own?
The original animates shows producers bailed out on helping because it was going so poorly and it kept getting delayed for issues. I have high expectations of a dumpster fire, but I'll at least watch the first episode.
