With the new trailer for the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” Netflix show coming out, fans have reemerged with new excitement. I am 100% one of those fans.
If you are unfamiliar with the original show “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the show came out in 2005 and had three seasons going until 2008.
The show follows the story of Aang, the last airbender who happens to be the Avatar. In this world, there are four nations and four different types of benders. The nations and benders follow the four elements being air, earth, water and fire.
The Avatar is the one person who can control all four elements and bring harmony to all nations.
Back to Aang. The Fire Nation was the main cause of Aang being the last airbender, as they wiped out the entire Air Nation in an attempt to kill the Avatar and allow the Fire Nation to control the world.
After the Air Nation is wiped out, the nations think the Avatar is dead for 100 years as he is frozen in ice after he runs away just before the Fire Nation attacked. This saves Aang but causes the Fire Nation to become almost a dictatorship.
Fast forward to the present day, a water bender, Katara, and her nonbending brother, Sokka, find Aang trapped inside an iceberg and free him. This starts the journey of Aang and his training to defeat Firelord Ozai, played by Mark Hamill.
The main problem for Aang is that he only knows air bending and, to defeat Firelord Ozai, he needs to know all four elements. Throughout the seasons, Aang goes on a journey searching for teachers of water, earth and fire bending.
Now with some background, the new live-action show. Fans are very scared but excited for this show.
Reason being, in 2010 there was an “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie and, well, it was horrible. Some say it was the worst show-to-film adaptation ever. I honestly agree.
The bending was nowhere close to the show, as in one scene it took like seven earth benders to move one rock. In the show, one bender could create a wall of rock without breaking a sweat.
The movie also called Aang the wrong name as his name is said Aye-ng while the movie said On-g. This simple mispronunciation caused so much drama and anger in the Avatar community.
There is even a joke that the Avatar movie is the black sheep of the family, and no one should bring them up.
With the show coming out, fans are scared that the show will bring forth the same emotions as the movie.
I have faith that the show will be better than the movie as the trailer looks fantastic. Fans all over the world also agree that the 2-minute trailer looks better than the entire 103-minute-long movie.
Hopefully, the show will live up to us mega fans’ expectations and it can join the community with open arms. With such a timeless and amazing show that touches on numerous political and social issues, the Netflix adaptation has very big shoes that it will hopefully fill.
Kierstyn Budz can be reached at krbudz@eiu.edu 0r 217-581-2812.
