So We Just Got A First Look At The Characters For The ATLA Live Action And I Feel Like This Is A Good

So we just got a first look at the characters for the ATLA live action and I feel like this is a good time to remind people that the live action will NOT be an exact retelling of the cartoon.

We have our Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee casted, and they’re supposed to be in season 1, which of course diverges from the original cartoon. I’m thinking it might be because book 1 of the cartoon is considered the slow season? Like...it’s great, but seasons 2 and 3 are definitely better, and most of the show’s top-rated episodes are in seasons 2 and 3.

Like Shadow and Bone, the ATLA live action is probably going to be closer to a high-budget fanfiction made not only to engage fans of the original show, but also to draw in new audiences who don’t watch cartoons, don’t like the animation style, or just haven’t watched ATLA...and hopefully this will also encourage them to watch the masterpiece that is the original cartoon.

But nevertheless, I’m actually interested to find out what the creators of the live action show decide to do and what changes they plan to make (I’m personally fine with not seeing The Great Divide in live action), as long as they keep the most important character arcs, plot points, and underlying themes. And as long as they don’t forget the most important character, the real heart of the show, and the most important line of dialogue in all of television.

I refer, of course, to Momo and 

“SECRET TUNNEL, THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, TUUUUUNEEELLL!”

As long as we have that, we’ll be fine.

P.S.: I can understand some concerns about low-quality costumes, but I’m also cautiously optimistic that they’ll look better in post production, with editing, lighting, etc. Also, at least they’re not wearing f*cking grey potato sacks. Live actions are so much more fun when there’s actual colour in them.

I watched the Greatest Showman and have been singing “rewrite the stars” for four days straight.

(but seriously, why did I not know P.T. Barnum’s actual story until like...this year??? It’s fucked up).

I was rewatching LOK and just loving how Toph’s parents did everything they could to shove her into a box and prevent her from doing what she loved--earthbending--but then Toph invented metalbending by literally escaping a box she was put in by the bounty hunters her parents sent after her, and then her kids and grandkids made the Beifong name basically synonymous with metalbending and innovation.

Give the Red Lotus more!

I know I made a post praising the fact that the Red Lotus had diverse personalities, but I think all fans could agree that they could’ve used more to differentiate themselves from Zaheer. Naturally, I have thoughts. The entire prison break scene just proves that P’li and Ming-Hua are ride-or-die besties, so why couldn’t that dynamic have been continued, huh, Bryke? Just a scene with P’li braiding Ming-Hua’s hair for her or teasing each other over something stupid or having a running gag with Ming-Hua, the tiniest of the group, giving the literal giant P’li piggyback rides, just because she can. I mean, if they had more moments like Ghazan’s “really? Right now?” Like, the BROTHER-SISTER DYNAMIC THAT COULD EXIST BETWEEN GHAZAN AND P’LI? I saw a creator talk about a who-can-be-more-destructive-in-battle competition between themn and like...

YES.

Like, hello, the banter during their fight scenes on the bridge getting out of Republic City or in Zaofu? Or even Ghazan gloating as he destroys the air temple with lava because he SO just won with that entire move.

Imagine a throwaway scene with P’li making too-spicy dinner and the others literally dying as she just peacefully eats and goes in for seconds. The badass Zaheer, sobbing in pain and begging Ming-Hua for the water she’s hogging for herself.

Also, I’d play up the bromance between Ghazan and Bolin a bit more, even it’s just Ghazan making a comment during their final fight that he’s sad he’s going to have to kill him.

During the stakeout fight, I’d have Ghazan and Ming-Hua sharing amused glances and snarky comments, make it explicitly obvious they’re just playing with the boys before they pummel them and Ghazan runs off to try and find Korra. They’re supposed to be “able to take down any bender,” and have had nine episodes to get back into bending after 13 years.

An idea that recently surfaced was that the red lotus should cause more conflicts within team avatar. Team Avatar’s been a little all over the place for the first two seasons, so having the red lotus so in sync with each other might motivate them to work on their own unity, and maybe help add to Mako coming back to the group and not being a weirdo about his breakups. That all just kind of disappeared as soon as they left. Hell, give them all internal conflicts surrounding anarchy! Have Korra struggling with her own doubts about the world needing an avatar and being raised by authorities--the white lotus--isolated in a compound. Have Mako struggling with being a cop when he’s reminded of how the authorities failed him and Bolin when they were on the streets, with Bolin coming to similar realizations. Even Asami, who faced discrimination as a nonbender, even if it was better because she’s rich and the Avatar’s bestie/gf. Have the red lotus leave lasting impressions on the characters. Plus, this kind of things would be great for team avatar to develop their friendships more, in a way a lot of LOK fans wish had happened.

I would show more foreshadowing to P’li’s backstory before it was revealed in enter the void. One thing I came up with was--and this is kind of reaching--Asami or Mako being reminded of their mothers, both of whom were dark-haired fire nation beauties. Maybe Asami’s mother was taller than average and fairly quiet, as well, and had some similar physical features to P’li, or maybe it was Mako. Let’s explore that trauma and its lasting impact on them! ATLA did it fantastically, and the LOK characters deserved at least some of that treatment. Maybe give one of them a brief moment alone and ask her why she’s doing these things, to which P’li’s only response is “you have no idea what people in power can do,” which we later learn is a reference to her own exploitation at the hands of a warlord. Hell, during her conversation with Zaheer in “enter the void,” maybe even add something about how she never wanted to kidnap an innocent girl, but will do it for the greater good, etc., or something that makes one of the mysteries of season 3 clearer: why would a girl who’d been kidnapped and exploited as a child be willing to do the same to another? I’d actually change the poisoning scene, having Korra knocked unconscious before they administer it, with one of them making a remark to the effect that P’li would only go through with the plan if this part of it were painless--even Zaheer yelling in their final fight that he doesn’t want to hurt her, or SOMETHING like that!

Some kind of will-they-or-won’t-they between Ming-Hua and Ghazan that has the other two rolling their eyes also wouldn’t hurt, fyi.

Red Lotus miniseries when?

Detail I haven’t noticed anyone talking about

You know something I noticed about six of crows that I don’t see anyone talking about so maybe I’m just overthinking it?

Jan Van Eck is always on about how Wylan is stupid and useless because he can’t read, right? 

But Wylan goes on the Ice Court Heist, considered suicidal and impossible, and he may not be a POV character in SOC or as flashy as Jesper, but he does play an important role. He gives them information on the layout of the Ice Court. He draws maps. He gives us the iconic “just girls?” moment. He saves Jesper’s life by pretending to be drunk. He helps them at the harbor when they’re ambushed before leaving, setting off a flash bomb. He helps get the tank. He voluntarily disguised himself as Kuwei to trick his father--also to, you know, see if his dad would actually kill him, but it was hard to do, knowing he might never get his real face back again.

Nobody notices that Wylan can’t read or write for the ENTIRE novel. There’s a moment where he doesn’t have his map labeled, but I only caught it on a reread, and his explanation that he doesn’t know Fjerdan is honestly convincing. Nobody thinks about how he has trouble reading signs or thinks too hard on why he doesn’t have his map labeled. Wylan gets through a whole ass novel without anyone noticing his inability to read. The book doesn’t have to go into long arguments about how not being able to read or write, or being otherwise unable to do things that others can or exactly the way they can, doesn’t make you stupid or helpless. Because Kaz shows us long before we get deep into his own thoughts regarding his disability. And Wylan showed us way before we even knew he had one.

Anyways, Six of Crows is a gift to humanity, bless Leigh Bardugo :)

My thoughts on the Eternals SPOILERS

Two years late, I finally got around to watching Marvels “Eternals.” And I obviously have to write a ridiculously long tumblr post on what I thought about it.

I think something that made me appreciate it a lot more on a rewatch was realizing that this was never supposed to be a standard Marvel movie. My first watch had me complaining that more than half the film was spent getting the gang back together, instead of on cool action scenes. But “Eternals” isn’t an action movie at all, though its actions scenes are great. It’s a film about family.

Second: let’s discuss the characters, who are at the heart of this story.

I don’t agree that every character was completely underdeveloped. They all have very distinct personalities, for starters: Ajak, the mom of the group; Ikaris, the little bitch--sorry, I mean PERFECT SOLDIER--Sersi, the goody-two-shoes; Phastos, the smart one; Druig, the hangry one; Makkari, our fave speedster/hoarder; Sprite, the sarcastic one; Gilgamesh, the lovable giant; Thena, the badass-who-still-struggles-with-mental-health, the quiet but strong type; and Kingo, the funny one who loves his family and is SUPER extra, as befits a Bollywood star. HOWEVER, they definitely needed more than a 3-hour movie to develop them.

For example: Why was Ajak the Prime Eternal? Her power is healing, not fighting. While I liked that deviation from traditional superhero roles, why did Arishem choose HER instead of, say, Ikaris to remember their past lifetimes and lead the team? I love Ajak a lot more than Ikaris and she seemed to actually be a great leader. I just want to figure out Arishem’s motivation.

And speaking of Ikaris, WHY was he so devoted? The others got the whole “duty, no interfering with humans” spiel from Ajak, but they still have critical thinking skills. Why was Ikaris so ready to turn against the people he considered family and kill a leader he seemed to genuinely respect and love as a mother figure? Why did he leave Sersi? Why was everyone so happy to fight him at the end? Like, Ikaris is annoying as shit (this post is not Ikaris-stan-friendly, I’m sorry), but the movie’s whole thing is family??? But...they all wanted to kill the one guy who turns out to be a villain at the end? Thena already seemed a little annoyed with him in Babylon at the beginning of the movie, but how about a few glimpses of the others getting annoyed with his know-it-all-ism?

Sersi. Sersi, Sersi, Sersi. I wanted to love you so bad. My main problem with Sersi, after careful consideration of why i found her character annoying, really isn’t that she’s softer than say, Thena, or cries more than Makkari; it’s that it feels like she doesn’t really have...more than three emotions? Happy, confused, and sad. For example, when Ikarkis reveals that he’s killed Ajak, she kind of just cries until he goes away. She looks at him kind of sadly when he’s defeated and flies into the sun. How about some anger through those tears? Let her cry and stuff for her ex-husband of 500 years. But show me that she can have “uglier” moments, too. I did love that they showed her moving on with Dane, though. We love a gal who knows her worth. I also would’ve loved to see her standoffish from Ikaris when he comes back. The guy abandoned her with seemingly no explanation 500 years ago. Keep him several arms’ lengths away, girl.

No notes on Druig. I love him so much. I’ve been converted into a Barry Keoghan stan and I have no regrets.

Makkari I felt like was also pretty cool. We know she’s a speedster, a hoarder, the only person Druig can tolerate for more than thirty seconds at a time, is generally the cheery one, but also has her dark side, like (rightfully) trying AND ALMOST SUCCEEDING to kill Ikaris after he almost kills Druig. My only criticism is that the deleted scene of her talking to Sprite was cut! Like, that was so good! More on that in the Sprite section, but we get a bit of Makkari’s motivations for wanting to stop the Emergence.

Phastos was also cool. I feel like we got what we needed to know about him--the dangers of technology and how it’s used, how he regained his faith in humanity, etc.--but not really his relationship with the other Eternals. That’s actually something that could’ve been improved on in general. They all really feel like a family, but there’s not much in the way of their individual relationships (Makkari and Sprite, Phastos and Druig, Ikaris and Gilgamesh...)

Sprite’s thing about being in love with Ikaris was stupid and cringey. Her conflict about not being able to grow up and experience what she wants is a lot more interesting, but for some reason, they decided not to explore that! It should’ve been her ultimate motivation and set up from the start of the movie. Her deleted scene with Makkari has her talking about how Babylon was their only real home on this planet, again setting up how Sprite’s never really fit in here.

Gilgamesh didn’t last long (*Sob*), but we get a pretty good feel for who he is. But why didn’t they mention his death again apart from Thena? Like...Makkari and Phastos never reunited with him! Why didn’t we also get their reactions to his death as well as Ajak’s?

I LOVE THENA. No notes.

I also love Kingo. I love how they kind of went in a grey area with him, with him being devoted to Arishem and not agreeing with stopping the Emergence, but refusing to hurt his family the way Ikaris did. I thought that was an unusual and much-appreciated angle to take.

Ikaris and Sersi, obviously, had no chemistry, and while I agree that in present-day, they’re probably SUPPOSED to feel like an awkward, divorced couple, even in their Babylon love story they feel like...two actors who are being forced to pretend to be in love for a paycheck. Like, I’m sure Gemma and Richard are great actors individually but together it doesn’t work. Was I supposed to feel sad that they broke up and wonder why the hell Ikaris left? Nah. I cringed. I skipped over their dry sex scene. I looked for Druig eating fruit during their wedding.

Druig and Makkari though? THEY HAVE MY FUCKING HEART AND SOUL AND MIND AND BODY. I love them, I love them, I love them. I will always love them till the day I die.

I also loved how Thena and Gilgamesh’s relationship can be interpreted as ride-or-die besties or old-married-couple or a mix of both, rather than a romance being forced down your throat. Refreshing angle to take, once again.

This movie was refreshing for phase 4 because, unlike CERTAIN FILMS (*cough* thorloveandthunder *cough*), there’s dialogue outside of cheap comedy. A visually stunning movie. I didn’t think it was as bad as a lot of people said, but I also think it would’ve been soooo much better as a miniseries, with more time to explore each eternal.