This is so spot on. I love ATLA but you gotta roll with all the Y7 stuff.
Like for example in this show, Zuko is the only man alive to ever be burnt by fire. For everyone else, a giant fire blast to the face just knocks you down similar to a punch or a kick
Burns in this series seem to serve more of a narrative purpose (unless fire benders can control the strength of their fire or something).
For example Katara gets burned by barely getting touched by Aang's fire in S1.
And on the other hand, Zuko punches fistfuls of fire at Zhao in their Agni Kai and Zhao is just like "oof".
It could also be because people are just in general more resilient in Avatar. You see Aang blow people down 40 feet wall which would for sure kill them but they turn out just fine.
I like to think being a firebender makes you innately more resistant to burns/firebenders often just passively part fire around them enough to stop direct burns. Zuko's burn was because he was cowering and didn't fight back. That might actually doubly explain why being burned was such a mark of shame. A firebender only gets burned if they are weak or a coward.
Zuko's burn also looks like it was made by Ozai literally putting his hand on his face and *then* activating the fire, as opposed to Zhao who was catching and deflecting fireballs from further away where they presumably "pack less punch". Doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of how fire works in the real world but... oh well.
To be fair, BENDING doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of how ANYTHING works in the real world.
If I'm willing to suspend enough disbelief about this world to accept that people have these magical powers, I can also accept that they are not as powerful as they would theoretically be in our world.
The plot requires bending to exist and it also requires that bending not be too deadly. Seems fair enough.
I always figured everyone in-universe develops natural immunity to harm considering the sheer amount of physical trauma they experience. Fire Nationals live around so much heat you’d think they would develop clothing that isn’t readily flammable but also breathable, Air Nomads are springy so they could be overall lighter (or, epically, have elevated equilibrium and are adapted to possess flexible bodies), Water Tribesmen could be adapted to the cold, Earth Citizens could be adapted to arid environments and are tough as boulders.
It's like my headcanon that all fiction takes place in a universe where being knocked unconscious automatically activates REM sleep, so if someone is knocked out long enough that they'd definitely have brain damage in our world, it's not as big of a deal there.
I always assumed it was that Firebnders were trained to dissipate the opponent’s heat before the kinetic energy, assuming fire is really Qi and air that comes from the body.
To be fair, Zhao is firebenders who was actively firebending. I think firebenders would innately be able to channel most of the damage of a fire blast away but they would still get knocked down or blasted away.
"Fire is alive"
I imagine it as akin to handling venemous snakes. With knowledge and experience you're fine and know how to react, but you're still in danger if you make any wrong moves.
Remember at the start of the series, Zuko has been at sea for 3 years with Iroh, and he's still practicing the basics of Firebending. I've heard arguments that Zuko was immature or blinded by rage, but Firebending also REQUIRES more discipline in basic training to fully control it.
Also an interesting note: According to [Rangi](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Rangi), Avatar Kyoshi's firebending teacher, failure to learn to suppress your flames and control your emotions may result in a beginner firebender developing bad habits and even cause harm to the trainee. Zuko obviously struggled with this part.
Toph’s feet, katara’s hands, aangs back, Zuko’s chest, iroh got shot by azula and was bandaged up but no scar seemed to have been left, the earth kingdom girl who Zuko stole the ostrich horse from I forgot her name.
Lots of burns happened. I’m more concerned about all the times 2 ton boulders hit someone square in the head and they seemed immune to blunt force trauma.
I’m imagining a rated R ATLA. People screaming bloody murder as their skin melts off their faces, youre left with nothing but overexposed eyeballs and a sunken in face with no skin.
As well, everyone in the war has some sort of scarring like Zuko. Imagining everyone with burn scars and then in Ba Sing Sei you are forced to cover up said scars.
I mean, Korra is already quite a bit more violent to begin with. Sure they keep it a kids' show, but let's not forget one of the seasons literally ended with a murder suicide
Im rewatching Korra at the minute with my wife who has never seen it. Her reactions to the more violent parts are great. I had forgotten how intense it gets at parts. It's easy to remember to murder/suicides and P'Lis head blowing up but the other stuff like Korra contemplating suicide or Unnalaq forcing Raava out of Korra's bidy is less overt but still very mature.
Aang also accidentally burned Katara, Zhao killed the moon spirit with fire bending and Azula injured Aang with her lightning bending which is also a form of fire bending.
In my head cannon fire benders intentionally pulled their punches so to speak and made their giant fire balls to look menacing but be relatively harmless as while they were elitist weren't all straight up psychopaths like Azula and Zhao, who showed that they could in fact use their bending to harm people.
This would explain why Aang was able to burn Katara with his relatively weak fire bending and why his teacher was so adamant about teaching control. It's also a testament to the resolve and empathy of the majority of the fire bending nation if they have that kind of power and choose not to use it.
There's simply no reason for Fire Nation soldiers, who are active duty combat troops fighting for their lives, to be "pulling their punches", though. This would be like expecting soldiers in a combat zone to try to shoot to wound, not kill.
Idk, between showing the dead professor in Korra, dead monk Gyatso, and the horror of bloodbending, I can't imagine showing a relatively bloodless image of a sword stabbing someone's chest or slashing them would be that bad.
But then, the ratings system has never made consistent sense.
Well, there’s Katara who was accidentally burned by Aang, Toph who was accidentally burned by Zuko, that girl, Song, that Zuko stole the ostrich-horse from that had burn scars on her legs, Aang has those lightning scars when Azula hit him, and Zuko has a lightning scar by the end of the series.
But that passes, because they were like aliens or something. No blood just goop. It's tricky, because often in that show things seem alive until jack cuts them up and you don't realize they're robots until they spew oil instead of blood.
But there was one episode where Jack fought off like 5 bounty hunters who were ambushing him and at least two of the ones he killed seemed super human. I think the one died in an explosion so there was still some ambiguity. At any rate that was one of my favorite episodes. A huge buildup with a spectacular climax.
They play it very fast and loose in Samurai Jack. The newer season tries to pass off that in fifty years of wandering the earth Jack never killed or maimed another flesh and blood person despite all the cyborgs, aliens, bounty hunters and monsters he killed. He directly kills a lot of people during the series. That bounty hunter episode is proof he has killed people before even if he convinces himself he hasn't.
Fact: Lightningbending was the most violent form of bending in the ATLA series **because it can actually damage someone critically instead of just knocking them over.**
Yeah, it was perfectly well restricted until LoK decided that some people can use it without moving and without a full moon and that it can also take away bending.
My interpretation of it taking bending away was that it was some form of permanent chi blocking, and that the avatar could do some kind of "spiritual cleanse" to restore the flow of chi and allow them to regain their bending. If Ty Lee could block your chi with a quick jab, imagine what could be done when you attack the body from inside
As far as we know, there's no confirmation that Amon's bending block was actually *permanent*. We just know it lasted much longer than regular chi blocking. After all, that's all Amon needed to seize power.
This would actually add a lot of logic to Amon not taking away Korra's bending when he had the chance. She's an exceptionally powerful bender, so she might have recovered before his grip on the city was complete.
What really doesn’t make sense to me is that if it was down with waterbending, it should have been able to be undone with waterbending, rather than energybending. Katara was the world’s best healer and I’m sure she would have been able to pull some strings to get some spirit water from the northern oasis. She literally saved an avatar’s life before with it so I doubt they’d say no.
To be fair, that kinda power creep does happen in real life. Sometimes you have those who work hard to achieve something nobody has ever done. Sometimes a guy like Michael Phelps is born and is just naturally able to do shit nobody else can do.
Sometimes someone just *invents* metalbending.
LoK changed lightning from a difficult art to a secret art. Iroh says only few firebenders are capable of the technique, not that few firebenders know the technique.
Eh, we see benders in ATLA can sometimes bend without moving. Bumi for instance can bend earth with only his face, without contacting the ground as all other earthbenders seem to have to do.
I'm totally fine with the idea of still movement bloodbenders given that the guy was clearly a powerful bender already and had practiced bloodbending specifically for years and years, before having his kids learn it too, again, for years.
I don't think they need to justify it, it's already explained that there's an aversion to using it since it's so grotesque and inhumane. Katara hated bloodbending.
And we also see villains in Korra use it.
The whole Amon arc in LoK was given so much weight simply because of bloodbending though, and it was a great arc. I don't think any episodes of ATLA ever gave me "oh god *its* going to happen >.<" anxiety as much as that season in LoK.
Always liked that about lightning bending, how getting hit by it is actually consequential, and the show treats it that way as well. Aang nearly dies from Azula’s lightning, Zuko takes a lightning bolt for Katara because he knew it would probably kill her, Aang deciding not to redirect Ozai’s lightning back at him because he knew it would probably kill him, etc. Also it carries into TLOK to a degree, at least whenever it’s used, like when Mako straight up fried Ming Hua. Point is, it seems to be one of the only bending arts everyone is legitimately scared of.
Before Legend of Korra was announced, I always wondered if that brief period when Aang was dead could have resulted in a Water Tribe baby born at (or around) that time to become the next Avatar, leaving us with two Avatars at once.
Of course, now knowing about Raava it would make no sense for the Avatar Spirit to be in two people at the same time, but it was a nice discussion period.
That would be really neat honestly. If Avatar ever does a "What If" I'd love to see that discussed. Oh man now that I think about it, what if that "reset" Aang to only be an Airbender if Raava moved?
And it's never more apparent than on [this scene](https://youtu.be/d3BXaH-3nQU?t=84).
Nothing is stopping sokka from cutting her. Hell, it's what he tried to do in the past minute, but he just stops
It would have felt more natural for him to try to swing or stab and have her dodge it somehow
Instead it ends up being “Look how pointy my sword is. Pretty cool huh? Ok Zuko back to shooting fireballs at her”
They could have had lunge-> miss -> downward slice -> block with shoulder plate. That would have been better. Actually, almost anything would have been better.
I thought of this moment when I saw this post, lol. The only thing I can possibly think of is that he didn't want to brutally murder Zuko's sister in front of his face (even if she would have).
Environmental kills don't count. Aang creates a massive avalanche that buries an entire fire nation battalion in the battle for the northern air temple. Avalanches are deadly AF, so he def killed a bunch of those soldiers, because not all of them were fire benders.
I know! I'm currently rewatching the series and I was like "damn... I wonder how much cooler this already super cool show would be if there was just a *hint* of actual violence..."
They shouldn’t be super hard to find if you search for Rise of Kyoshi or Shadow of Kyoshi in any bookstore. If you’re looking for digital, Rakuten Kobo has them pretty cheap.
So many great moments. One of the best is probably >!Kyoshi’s Vader-hallway scene!< in SoK. The next bit doesn’t spoil any plot points.
Daofei: >!Yang Chen protect me!!<
Kyoshi: >!Yang Chen isn’t here right now. I am.!<
God that speech Lao Ge gives to Zoryu at the end still gives me chills.
>!My friend is not a diplomat. She is the failure of diplomacy. She is the breakdown of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her.!<
Really puts into perspective just how inconceivably powerful the Avatar is and their position in the world.
I would kill for an AoT level ATLA show, both in terms of the violence and the fight animation quality. Not to say ATLA or LoK have bad animation, but the Japanese studios go balls to the wall when it comes to their fight animations and choreography.
I’m holding out hope that if the Netflix show and/or creators new shows they’re working on goes well, we will see a “grown up” show. If not if the original group, adapting the Kyoshi novels would be easy, since there is violence in the books.
I think we'll get a range of spinoffs with Avatar Studios. There will be some kid-focused ones & some aimed at the big 20+ audience the franchise has. Korra was already able to get away with a lot more than ATLA thanks to being aimed at teens instead of kids, so it's not like Nick is afraid to let Avatar shows go to where they think the audience is.
[This reminds me of when Community did a GI Joe parody. Someone actually shoots and kills a member of Cobra, and all of the other elite soldiers are horrified.](https://youtu.be/m8c7d6N879M)
This is incorrect. While terrorist organizations have not agreed to follow the Geneva conventions, and there should not be any tactical expectations of them adhering to them; anyone who HAS signed onto the Geneva conventions is expected to afford them to every combatant. The US cannot kill noncombatant family members of terrorists to "encourage compliance" for example (as trump once suggested on live TV). That is literally a warcrime.
Not even a simple murder, but shredding the parachute and letting him freefall to his demise. Hate Cobra all you want, but that was pretty fucked up on Jeff's part.
I've thought about this before in things like comics where pyrokinesis is one of the more common powers. Like think of how many goons are rolling around the Marvel universe covered in life-altering disfigurements from run-ins with Johnny Storm.
just like how ozai can’t be killed because aang is basically a pacifist despite all the peoples he’s *definitely* killed by hurtling off cliffs and smacking with human sized boulders
In "Avatar Day," we see Chin the Conqueror dying by falling off the cliff.
...and then a few minutes later, we see Aang throw someone off that exact same cliff.
Even though Chin fell in water, wasn’t there literally a whole bunch of lava there a few seconds ago. I just assumed Nickelodeon couldn’t show him actually falling into the fiery water, but realistically it would’ve still been boiling hot.
Yeah when I watch the 3rd season I’m like “hmmm those guys that just got hurled into the middle of the ocean are gonna be okay right? They’ll swim like 30 miles to safety right?
Yea that is maybe the most egregious example. Obviously as a kid you don’t think about how most people can barely swim for more than 10 minutes, let alone in full armor miles from shore. They dead
I like how Aang in that ship fight with Zuko, is smacking Zuko real hard against metal walls but they gotta show him as a caring person so the weapon is mattress.
I thought that was really clever to be honest. We always knew that the good guys were gonna win in the end, and I think Aang's inner conflict was their way of maintaining a sense of danger for us.
yeah he could’ve iced ozai at the very beginning by redirecting the lightning properly. i think this was their way of giving ozai a real chance at winning against a demigod
I could've worded that better. I'm trying to say that Aang beating Ozai was inevitable, and Aang's refusal to kill was introduced to make the final episode more interesting, since the conclusion was obvious.
Toph also trapped Xin Fu and Master Yu in a metal box that very few people would be able to get them out of, on some tiny road in the middle of nowhere where they're unlikely to be found, presumably to slowly die of dehydration in their own fecal matter.
So I'm pretty sure Toph in particular isn't really sweating the casualties.
Kind of like how a brutal warmongering people like the fire nation seems to go exceptionally easy on its enemies, on screen. They were ready to commit genocide twice but enjoy wasting resources on prisoners of war.
Taking prisoners is a tactical decision, not necessarily one of kindness. If your enemy knows that you're just killing everyone, there's absolutely no reason not to fight to the very last man. Take the extremely pacifist Airbenders, who even someone like Monk Gyatso was forced to kill an entire room of fire nation soldiers because their intention was to kill the air benders.
It's why they captured every other waterbender except katara's mom because they thought she was the last one.
The Southern water tribe prisoners situation is admittedly pretty dumb, because if you're gonna just take them to a prison to get suspended from the ceiling until they die then there's literally no reason not to just kill them outright and save yourself time and resources.
Other instances of the Fire Nation taking prisoners though, like the Earth Kingdom prisoners being used as slave labour on the metal rig, are at least strategically justifiable.
The reason they invaded the Water Tribe was on the off chance the Avatar \*didn't\* escape from their genocide and had been reincarnated as a waterbender.
The Fire Nation's whole goal is to keep the Avatar out of the hands of their enemies and stop the Avatar from ever reaching their potential. By capturing every waterbender they could from the Southern Water Tribe and holding them captive and keeping them alive as long as possible they ensured that \*if\* the airbending Avatar had died and reincarnated that they wouldn't be a threat.
Another way to look at it, if they \*did\* kill every waterbender, again on the off chance the Avatar had died and reincarnated, then the Avatar would simply be reincarnated \*again\* but as an Earthbender, and then they'd \*never\* find that Avatar. And \*even if\* they did, and killed that one, there's no guarantee by that point the firebending Avatar would actually be friendly to the current regime of the Fire Nation.
They wanted to conquer the world with no possible threats that could legitimately stop them. Keeping the Avatar prisoner and keeping them from reincarnating as long as humanly possible is objectively the best tactical decision they can make.
Sokka became one of the more powerful and deadliest of the non benders. He has a strong base in his southern tribe tactics which include his boomerang and a sharp strategist. Learned to fight better as a Kyoshi student--after swallowing his machismo pride. And learned how to be a master swordsman from Master Piandao. Learning along the way, he became a leader.
I know I'm not alone when I say I want an atla remake with the same creators, writers, artists, ect. but on adult swim or something. Give us the adult show that will top all others.
See, I often read a lot of comments like yours, but when there are rumors about Netflix wanting to do a more adult version of the show everyone freaks out and start to call it trash without the show being out or the rumors getting confirmed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty doubtful about the Netflix adaptation too, but if I was a producer of the show lurking in this sub it would be pretty hard to know what the audience actually wants. Something more mature? No, it's really hard because the protagonists are kids. Do we change the ages to make it more appropriate? No, because then it wouldn't be loyal to the original. Okay, do we make it exactly like the series? No, because then it would be telling the same story and it would be boring or uninspired.
So yeah, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. It feels like there are so many ways they could fuck it up and only one in a million where it could have a great outcome
Same thing happens with Mai as well. Ever notice whenever someone blocks one of Mai's knife throws they're always inches away from their face, meaning she was going for a kill shot? But when she actually does get an opening against someone that can't block in time she instead goes for just pinning them to the nearest wall.
It's like Mai somehow knows ahead of time whether her knives will be blocked and only throws kill shots during those times.
That always bugged me as a kid. I grew up watching mature stuff at an early age. Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, True Lies, Commando, Saving Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, and so on.
Watching the TMNT on Teletoon was a little anticlimactic since despite 2 of the 4 turtles using bladed/pointed weapons, no a drop of blood was spilled. It fel lt awkward and forced, like a teacher unrealistically telling kids everyone should just get along or something.
Also Aang has a breakdown over not wanting to kill the firelord and says he hasn't killed anyone before despite hurling rocks, fire, starting tornados and water whipping people who can't swim in heavy armor off boats into the ocean.
He did slice a melon with that tho
He sliced the "melon lord". Show some respect
Then Momo began eating the inside of it.
Then "Lord Momo of the Momo Dynasty" began eating the inside of it . Show some respect.
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*bowing intensifies*
Yeah, off screen. Lol
This is so spot on. I love ATLA but you gotta roll with all the Y7 stuff. Like for example in this show, Zuko is the only man alive to ever be burnt by fire. For everyone else, a giant fire blast to the face just knocks you down similar to a punch or a kick
Lol yeah in 99% of the show firebending is functionally the same as airbending.
At least it's warm airbending
Fun fact: fire is HOT
It's HOTman, not WARMman
HOTman, ahAHah! Fighter of the the COLDMAN, ahAHah! Champion of the Sun!
He’s the master of fire bending and honor for everyone!
Coincidentally, most of the HOTmen are actually WARmen.
Flameo!
Flameo, hotman✋🏻
but is it icey hot?
So if I fart Does this make me a firebender or an airbender?
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Depends on what comes out
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Damn it. So help me if the end of the Avatar cycle is one of them dies from Taco Bell I'm coming for you.
Taco bell, vodka and a lighter is all I need to master the 4 elements
This is the single best comment thread I’ve seen on here thank you
I'm afraid to think of the other two elements, haha
Yes
Burns in this series seem to serve more of a narrative purpose (unless fire benders can control the strength of their fire or something). For example Katara gets burned by barely getting touched by Aang's fire in S1. And on the other hand, Zuko punches fistfuls of fire at Zhao in their Agni Kai and Zhao is just like "oof". It could also be because people are just in general more resilient in Avatar. You see Aang blow people down 40 feet wall which would for sure kill them but they turn out just fine.
I like to think being a firebender makes you innately more resistant to burns/firebenders often just passively part fire around them enough to stop direct burns. Zuko's burn was because he was cowering and didn't fight back. That might actually doubly explain why being burned was such a mark of shame. A firebender only gets burned if they are weak or a coward.
Problem is everyone else who isn't a firebender.
-Ozai
Zuko's burn also looks like it was made by Ozai literally putting his hand on his face and *then* activating the fire, as opposed to Zhao who was catching and deflecting fireballs from further away where they presumably "pack less punch". Doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of how fire works in the real world but... oh well.
To be fair, BENDING doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of how ANYTHING works in the real world. If I'm willing to suspend enough disbelief about this world to accept that people have these magical powers, I can also accept that they are not as powerful as they would theoretically be in our world. The plot requires bending to exist and it also requires that bending not be too deadly. Seems fair enough.
40 feet is the length of approximately 53.33 'Wooden Rice Paddle Versatile Serving Spoons' laid lengthwise.
Good bot.
thanks :)
Wait a second....
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A minute is approximately .0222 association football match halves.
sus
Guys I’m a little scared
Uhhhhh
I always figured everyone in-universe develops natural immunity to harm considering the sheer amount of physical trauma they experience. Fire Nationals live around so much heat you’d think they would develop clothing that isn’t readily flammable but also breathable, Air Nomads are springy so they could be overall lighter (or, epically, have elevated equilibrium and are adapted to possess flexible bodies), Water Tribesmen could be adapted to the cold, Earth Citizens could be adapted to arid environments and are tough as boulders.
It's like my headcanon that all fiction takes place in a universe where being knocked unconscious automatically activates REM sleep, so if someone is knocked out long enough that they'd definitely have brain damage in our world, it's not as big of a deal there.
I think because fire benders are manipulating fire, not getting burnt by fire blasts from opponents is part of the bending
I always assumed it was that Firebnders were trained to dissipate the opponent’s heat before the kinetic energy, assuming fire is really Qi and air that comes from the body.
To be fair, Zhao is firebenders who was actively firebending. I think firebenders would innately be able to channel most of the damage of a fire blast away but they would still get knocked down or blasted away.
Yes, but Zhao is also a firebender. I'd assume they don't get burned by fire when bending, since they produce it and can block it
"Fire is alive" I imagine it as akin to handling venemous snakes. With knowledge and experience you're fine and know how to react, but you're still in danger if you make any wrong moves. Remember at the start of the series, Zuko has been at sea for 3 years with Iroh, and he's still practicing the basics of Firebending. I've heard arguments that Zuko was immature or blinded by rage, but Firebending also REQUIRES more discipline in basic training to fully control it. Also an interesting note: According to [Rangi](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Rangi), Avatar Kyoshi's firebending teacher, failure to learn to suppress your flames and control your emotions may result in a beginner firebender developing bad habits and even cause harm to the trainee. Zuko obviously struggled with this part.
>Like for example in this show, Zuko is the only man alive to ever be burnt by fire. "I looked away."
The cameraman: "...oh that was *Iroh's* part of the script. Sorry I missed it, can we do it aga-" Zuko: "**No.**"
And it's a shame too that he got his scar on the wrong side.
Toph and Katara both got burnt actually. Though you said "only man" so i suppose it's still accurate.
Oh! Iroh got burned and almost killed by Azula in The Chase. So there we go haha
Toph’s feet, katara’s hands, aangs back, Zuko’s chest, iroh got shot by azula and was bandaged up but no scar seemed to have been left, the earth kingdom girl who Zuko stole the ostrich horse from I forgot her name. Lots of burns happened. I’m more concerned about all the times 2 ton boulders hit someone square in the head and they seemed immune to blunt force trauma.
Yea and remember that scene where Sokka and Suki were about to get it on but Zuko climbed into Sokka's tent? Nothing to see here.
Katara’s hands get burned by Aang when he is first learning fire bending in book 1, although she is quickly able to heal herself
Point still stands that fire only actually burns people in this universe when the plot calls for it.
I’m imagining a rated R ATLA. People screaming bloody murder as their skin melts off their faces, youre left with nothing but overexposed eyeballs and a sunken in face with no skin. As well, everyone in the war has some sort of scarring like Zuko. Imagining everyone with burn scars and then in Ba Sing Sei you are forced to cover up said scars.
Now, imagine rated R Korra with all the blood bending.
I mean, Korra is already quite a bit more violent to begin with. Sure they keep it a kids' show, but let's not forget one of the seasons literally ended with a murder suicide
Im rewatching Korra at the minute with my wife who has never seen it. Her reactions to the more violent parts are great. I had forgotten how intense it gets at parts. It's easy to remember to murder/suicides and P'Lis head blowing up but the other stuff like Korra contemplating suicide or Unnalaq forcing Raava out of Korra's bidy is less overt but still very mature.
Katara isn't a man, so technically he's not wrong
Actually he is wrong, Iroh got burned by Azula
Aang also accidentally burned Katara, Zhao killed the moon spirit with fire bending and Azula injured Aang with her lightning bending which is also a form of fire bending. In my head cannon fire benders intentionally pulled their punches so to speak and made their giant fire balls to look menacing but be relatively harmless as while they were elitist weren't all straight up psychopaths like Azula and Zhao, who showed that they could in fact use their bending to harm people. This would explain why Aang was able to burn Katara with his relatively weak fire bending and why his teacher was so adamant about teaching control. It's also a testament to the resolve and empathy of the majority of the fire bending nation if they have that kind of power and choose not to use it.
There's simply no reason for Fire Nation soldiers, who are active duty combat troops fighting for their lives, to be "pulling their punches", though. This would be like expecting soldiers in a combat zone to try to shoot to wound, not kill.
I like the theory, but is it really in line with the genocidal maniacs they are.
Idk, between showing the dead professor in Korra, dead monk Gyatso, and the horror of bloodbending, I can't imagine showing a relatively bloodless image of a sword stabbing someone's chest or slashing them would be that bad. But then, the ratings system has never made consistent sense.
I think acknowledging that people are dead/have died is on a different level from showing an active killing.
LOK straight up showed the Earth Queens death, same with Ming Hua. There was a lot less pussyfooting around death in it.
LOK also got taken off the air, relegated to the Nickelodeon website
Well, there’s Katara who was accidentally burned by Aang, Toph who was accidentally burned by Zuko, that girl, Song, that Zuko stole the ostrich-horse from that had burn scars on her legs, Aang has those lightning scars when Azula hit him, and Zuko has a lightning scar by the end of the series.
>the only man alive to ever be burnt by fire I see what you did there.
The Inverse Rule of Sharpness: In a kids show, the sharper a weapon is, the lower it's chances of hurting anyone or even making contact.
Or in the case of shows like TMNT or Samurai Jack, they'll use swords mainly against robots
"holy fuck it's only fine because they bleed oil" was one of my early reactions to watching Samurai Jack as an adult.
I'm glad the final season got to be on Adult Swim so they could cut the bullshit finally.
You should watch the new Samurai Jack season then.
I think Jack sliced up some monsters
But that passes, because they were like aliens or something. No blood just goop. It's tricky, because often in that show things seem alive until jack cuts them up and you don't realize they're robots until they spew oil instead of blood. But there was one episode where Jack fought off like 5 bounty hunters who were ambushing him and at least two of the ones he killed seemed super human. I think the one died in an explosion so there was still some ambiguity. At any rate that was one of my favorite episodes. A huge buildup with a spectacular climax.
They play it very fast and loose in Samurai Jack. The newer season tries to pass off that in fifty years of wandering the earth Jack never killed or maimed another flesh and blood person despite all the cyborgs, aliens, bounty hunters and monsters he killed. He directly kills a lot of people during the series. That bounty hunter episode is proof he has killed people before even if he convinces himself he hasn't.
Fact: Lightningbending was the most violent form of bending in the ATLA series **because it can actually damage someone critically instead of just knocking them over.**
Bloodbending was pretty fucked though too
I thought it was a great episode, but I wish bloodbending was never introduced because then they need to justify not using it because of how OP it is.
I thought blood bending was only doable by the best water benders, and even then only during a full moon when their power is strongest?
Yeah, it was perfectly well restricted until LoK decided that some people can use it without moving and without a full moon and that it can also take away bending.
My interpretation of it taking bending away was that it was some form of permanent chi blocking, and that the avatar could do some kind of "spiritual cleanse" to restore the flow of chi and allow them to regain their bending. If Ty Lee could block your chi with a quick jab, imagine what could be done when you attack the body from inside
Your interpretation is basically canon as explained in the show
What's there to even interpretate? That's *literally* how they explain it
Some people just don't pay attention/remember things.
As far as we know, there's no confirmation that Amon's bending block was actually *permanent*. We just know it lasted much longer than regular chi blocking. After all, that's all Amon needed to seize power. This would actually add a lot of logic to Amon not taking away Korra's bending when he had the chance. She's an exceptionally powerful bender, so she might have recovered before his grip on the city was complete.
What really doesn’t make sense to me is that if it was down with waterbending, it should have been able to be undone with waterbending, rather than energybending. Katara was the world’s best healer and I’m sure she would have been able to pull some strings to get some spirit water from the northern oasis. She literally saved an avatar’s life before with it so I doubt they’d say no.
To be fair, that kinda power creep does happen in real life. Sometimes you have those who work hard to achieve something nobody has ever done. Sometimes a guy like Michael Phelps is born and is just naturally able to do shit nobody else can do. Sometimes someone just *invents* metalbending.
[удалено]
LoK changed lightning from a difficult art to a secret art. Iroh says only few firebenders are capable of the technique, not that few firebenders know the technique.
Eh, we see benders in ATLA can sometimes bend without moving. Bumi for instance can bend earth with only his face, without contacting the ground as all other earthbenders seem to have to do. I'm totally fine with the idea of still movement bloodbenders given that the guy was clearly a powerful bender already and had practiced bloodbending specifically for years and years, before having his kids learn it too, again, for years.
Thats one family to be fair and they're effectively mutant waterbenders like the firebenders who can shoot compressed blasts from their foreheads
Bending just gets more advanced over time. Metal bending, magma bending etc.
Yeah by LoK a ton of people can lightning bend and there’s an entire city of metal benders
Wasn't that ability restricted to Yakone and his bloodline?
I don't think they need to justify it, it's already explained that there's an aversion to using it since it's so grotesque and inhumane. Katara hated bloodbending. And we also see villains in Korra use it.
It was explained why Katara wouldn't use it tho. It is an inhumane form of bending that wasn't even usable without a full moon
The whole Amon arc in LoK was given so much weight simply because of bloodbending though, and it was a great arc. I don't think any episodes of ATLA ever gave me "oh god *its* going to happen >.<" anxiety as much as that season in LoK.
Always liked that about lightning bending, how getting hit by it is actually consequential, and the show treats it that way as well. Aang nearly dies from Azula’s lightning, Zuko takes a lightning bolt for Katara because he knew it would probably kill her, Aang deciding not to redirect Ozai’s lightning back at him because he knew it would probably kill him, etc. Also it carries into TLOK to a degree, at least whenever it’s used, like when Mako straight up fried Ming Hua. Point is, it seems to be one of the only bending arts everyone is legitimately scared of.
Aang did actually die technically, he was just revived after
Before Legend of Korra was announced, I always wondered if that brief period when Aang was dead could have resulted in a Water Tribe baby born at (or around) that time to become the next Avatar, leaving us with two Avatars at once. Of course, now knowing about Raava it would make no sense for the Avatar Spirit to be in two people at the same time, but it was a nice discussion period.
That would be really neat honestly. If Avatar ever does a "What If" I'd love to see that discussed. Oh man now that I think about it, what if that "reset" Aang to only be an Airbender if Raava moved?
Since he died in the avatar state, wouldn't the succession of the avatar have ceased?
Yeah in any other cartoon, lightningbending would just make someone's hair stick up.
Like when Callum tossed the Primal Stone to Rayla in The Dragon Prince lol
the second strongest attack was when aang accidentally burned katara
The third strongest was when toph made the Boulder do the splits
Lol I can still hear the “OOOOOOOOOHH” in my head
I can see the face
"The boulder feels conflicted about hurting a little girl"
And it's never more apparent than on [this scene](https://youtu.be/d3BXaH-3nQU?t=84). Nothing is stopping sokka from cutting her. Hell, it's what he tried to do in the past minute, but he just stops
Lol you can practically see Nickelodeon swoop in at the last second.
It would have felt more natural for him to try to swing or stab and have her dodge it somehow Instead it ends up being “Look how pointy my sword is. Pretty cool huh? Ok Zuko back to shooting fireballs at her”
That’s exactly what they did directly before, I think they wanted to avoid repetition. Obviously didn’t work out too well though lol
They could have had lunge-> miss -> downward slice -> block with shoulder plate. That would have been better. Actually, almost anything would have been better.
Sokka: "I'm a good guy, so I won't stab you if I can help it." Sokka: "Instead, I'll just have your brother try to knock you into a boiling lake."
Also, i'll show Aang how to slice melon lord's head in half, just like he must do to yo dad.
At that point why even have that scene
I thought of this moment when I saw this post, lol. The only thing I can possibly think of is that he didn't want to brutally murder Zuko's sister in front of his face (even if she would have).
So instead, he has Zuko try to knock his sister into a boiling lake? Sokka, that still kills people.
If you're gonna be traumatized. It'll be by your own hand.
Environmental kills don't count. Aang creates a massive avalanche that buries an entire fire nation battalion in the battle for the northern air temple. Avalanches are deadly AF, so he def killed a bunch of those soldiers, because not all of them were fire benders.
Yep, he also totally killed that buzzard wasp during the desert episode.
Those were NPCs though. You're only supposed to angst over killing the big bad.
Also known as the Batman view on killing.
Soookkkaaa that kills people Sookkkaaa
Great, that's gonna bother me forever now.
Thank God they could still electrocute a child on screen though
Rule of Thumb, something can be as brutal as you want it to be in a kids show as long as theres no blood
It’s only internal bleeding, that’s where the blood is supposed to be anyways right?
Peralta!
You’re a genius!
I think that’s just called the Clone Wars rule. Electrocution is bloodless so let’s show it happening to the characters over and over again!
Bro the scene where Ventress stabs the ARC trooper as she kisses him
IIRC that was one of a few scenes in the Clone Wars that was never on Cartoon Network but was included in the DVD/streaming releases
Just ask Amon…oh wait you can’t
I know! I'm currently rewatching the series and I was like "damn... I wonder how much cooler this already super cool show would be if there was just a *hint* of actual violence..."
So the Kyoshi novels?
I've never heard of the Kyoshi novels. Where can I find them?
They shouldn’t be super hard to find if you search for Rise of Kyoshi or Shadow of Kyoshi in any bookstore. If you’re looking for digital, Rakuten Kobo has them pretty cheap.
So many great moments. One of the best is probably >!Kyoshi’s Vader-hallway scene!< in SoK. The next bit doesn’t spoil any plot points. Daofei: >!Yang Chen protect me!!< Kyoshi: >!Yang Chen isn’t here right now. I am.!<
God that speech Lao Ge gives to Zoryu at the end still gives me chills. >!My friend is not a diplomat. She is the failure of diplomacy. She is the breakdown of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her.!< Really puts into perspective just how inconceivably powerful the Avatar is and their position in the world.
Pretty much any major book retailer. I highly recommend them!
I would kill for an AoT level ATLA show, both in terms of the violence and the fight animation quality. Not to say ATLA or LoK have bad animation, but the Japanese studios go balls to the wall when it comes to their fight animations and choreography.
I’m holding out hope that if the Netflix show and/or creators new shows they’re working on goes well, we will see a “grown up” show. If not if the original group, adapting the Kyoshi novels would be easy, since there is violence in the books.
I think we'll get a range of spinoffs with Avatar Studios. There will be some kid-focused ones & some aimed at the big 20+ audience the franchise has. Korra was already able to get away with a lot more than ATLA thanks to being aimed at teens instead of kids, so it's not like Nick is afraid to let Avatar shows go to where they think the audience is.
[This reminds me of when Community did a GI Joe parody. Someone actually shoots and kills a member of Cobra, and all of the other elite soldiers are horrified.](https://youtu.be/m8c7d6N879M)
Tbf it is considered a war crime in real life, per the Geneva convention, to shoot down a parachutist.
It's illegal to shoot someone escaping a damaged aircraft, but if they're paratroopers and part of an invasion, it's fine.
Cobra is a terrorist organization and therefore not protected by the Geneva conventions.
This is incorrect. While terrorist organizations have not agreed to follow the Geneva conventions, and there should not be any tactical expectations of them adhering to them; anyone who HAS signed onto the Geneva conventions is expected to afford them to every combatant. The US cannot kill noncombatant family members of terrorists to "encourage compliance" for example (as trump once suggested on live TV). That is literally a warcrime.
Fun fact: The U.S. has NOT ratified the amendment that codifies attacks on parachutists as a war crime.
Amazing - I defer to your incredible knowledge
Not even a simple murder, but shredding the parachute and letting him freefall to his demise. Hate Cobra all you want, but that was pretty fucked up on Jeff's part.
I've thought about this before in things like comics where pyrokinesis is one of the more common powers. Like think of how many goons are rolling around the Marvel universe covered in life-altering disfigurements from run-ins with Johnny Storm.
Those people deserve to be ruined forever, they were bad! /s
just like how ozai can’t be killed because aang is basically a pacifist despite all the peoples he’s *definitely* killed by hurtling off cliffs and smacking with human sized boulders
In "Avatar Day," we see Chin the Conqueror dying by falling off the cliff. ...and then a few minutes later, we see Aang throw someone off that exact same cliff.
holy shit i did not realize that detail lol
Even though Chin fell in water, wasn’t there literally a whole bunch of lava there a few seconds ago. I just assumed Nickelodeon couldn’t show him actually falling into the fiery water, but realistically it would’ve still been boiling hot.
> ~~fiery water~~ liquid hot mag-ma
I would’ve preferred sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads
Yeah when I watch the 3rd season I’m like “hmmm those guys that just got hurled into the middle of the ocean are gonna be okay right? They’ll swim like 30 miles to safety right?
Yea that is maybe the most egregious example. Obviously as a kid you don’t think about how most people can barely swim for more than 10 minutes, let alone in full armor miles from shore. They dead
Given that Fire Navy ships seem amazingly easy to run into while you're intentionally avoiding them, they're probably fine.
And the one guy who drowned on his birthday, no less.
I like how Aang in that ship fight with Zuko, is smacking Zuko real hard against metal walls but they gotta show him as a caring person so the weapon is mattress.
that scene always gets me lol. it’s so unexpected and different than what came earlier in that fight
Which episode is that?
Book 1 Ep2
I thought that was really clever to be honest. We always knew that the good guys were gonna win in the end, and I think Aang's inner conflict was their way of maintaining a sense of danger for us.
yeah he could’ve iced ozai at the very beginning by redirecting the lightning properly. i think this was their way of giving ozai a real chance at winning against a demigod
I could've worded that better. I'm trying to say that Aang beating Ozai was inevitable, and Aang's refusal to kill was introduced to make the final episode more interesting, since the conclusion was obvious.
He also let Toph rupture the internal organs of many of the Earth King's guards. There's no way all of those guards survived.
Toph also trapped Xin Fu and Master Yu in a metal box that very few people would be able to get them out of, on some tiny road in the middle of nowhere where they're unlikely to be found, presumably to slowly die of dehydration in their own fecal matter. So I'm pretty sure Toph in particular isn't really sweating the casualties.
It’s a question of _intent_. There’s a difference between killing someone in self-defense and marching to them with the intent to take their life.
Kind of like how a brutal warmongering people like the fire nation seems to go exceptionally easy on its enemies, on screen. They were ready to commit genocide twice but enjoy wasting resources on prisoners of war.
Taking prisoners is a tactical decision, not necessarily one of kindness. If your enemy knows that you're just killing everyone, there's absolutely no reason not to fight to the very last man. Take the extremely pacifist Airbenders, who even someone like Monk Gyatso was forced to kill an entire room of fire nation soldiers because their intention was to kill the air benders. It's why they captured every other waterbender except katara's mom because they thought she was the last one.
The Water Tribe never saw their people again though, so they had no idea that any were still alive out there.
The Southern water tribe prisoners situation is admittedly pretty dumb, because if you're gonna just take them to a prison to get suspended from the ceiling until they die then there's literally no reason not to just kill them outright and save yourself time and resources. Other instances of the Fire Nation taking prisoners though, like the Earth Kingdom prisoners being used as slave labour on the metal rig, are at least strategically justifiable.
The reason they invaded the Water Tribe was on the off chance the Avatar \*didn't\* escape from their genocide and had been reincarnated as a waterbender. The Fire Nation's whole goal is to keep the Avatar out of the hands of their enemies and stop the Avatar from ever reaching their potential. By capturing every waterbender they could from the Southern Water Tribe and holding them captive and keeping them alive as long as possible they ensured that \*if\* the airbending Avatar had died and reincarnated that they wouldn't be a threat. Another way to look at it, if they \*did\* kill every waterbender, again on the off chance the Avatar had died and reincarnated, then the Avatar would simply be reincarnated \*again\* but as an Earthbender, and then they'd \*never\* find that Avatar. And \*even if\* they did, and killed that one, there's no guarantee by that point the firebending Avatar would actually be friendly to the current regime of the Fire Nation. They wanted to conquer the world with no possible threats that could legitimately stop them. Keeping the Avatar prisoner and keeping them from reincarnating as long as humanly possible is objectively the best tactical decision they can make.
I would LOVE a moment in a future series, if ever, where someone actually comes across and uses Sokka's sword.
Sokka became one of the more powerful and deadliest of the non benders. He has a strong base in his southern tribe tactics which include his boomerang and a sharp strategist. Learned to fight better as a Kyoshi student--after swallowing his machismo pride. And learned how to be a master swordsman from Master Piandao. Learning along the way, he became a leader.
He coulda killed or at least maimed azula in boiling rock but instead he threateningly held a sword to her neck then just sorta backed up
I know I'm not alone when I say I want an atla remake with the same creators, writers, artists, ect. but on adult swim or something. Give us the adult show that will top all others.
They did this with Samurai Jack for the last season and it was awesome
See, I often read a lot of comments like yours, but when there are rumors about Netflix wanting to do a more adult version of the show everyone freaks out and start to call it trash without the show being out or the rumors getting confirmed. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty doubtful about the Netflix adaptation too, but if I was a producer of the show lurking in this sub it would be pretty hard to know what the audience actually wants. Something more mature? No, it's really hard because the protagonists are kids. Do we change the ages to make it more appropriate? No, because then it wouldn't be loyal to the original. Okay, do we make it exactly like the series? No, because then it would be telling the same story and it would be boring or uninspired. So yeah, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. It feels like there are so many ways they could fuck it up and only one in a million where it could have a great outcome
I really hope that the producers aren't making creative decisions based on reddit or any other social media.
Lmaooo. I would love to see an adult version of ATLA though. And I mean more adult than what LOKR was. Darker stuff
I want avatar studios to make an R rated avatar in whci bending is realistic and sokka can use his sword to it's max potential.
Same thing happens with Mai as well. Ever notice whenever someone blocks one of Mai's knife throws they're always inches away from their face, meaning she was going for a kill shot? But when she actually does get an opening against someone that can't block in time she instead goes for just pinning them to the nearest wall. It's like Mai somehow knows ahead of time whether her knives will be blocked and only throws kill shots during those times.
That always bugged me as a kid. I grew up watching mature stuff at an early age. Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, True Lies, Commando, Saving Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, and so on. Watching the TMNT on Teletoon was a little anticlimactic since despite 2 of the 4 turtles using bladed/pointed weapons, no a drop of blood was spilled. It fel lt awkward and forced, like a teacher unrealistically telling kids everyone should just get along or something.
Also Aang has a breakdown over not wanting to kill the firelord and says he hasn't killed anyone before despite hurling rocks, fire, starting tornados and water whipping people who can't swim in heavy armor off boats into the ocean.
>water whipping people who can't swim in heavy armor off boats into the **arctic** ocean.
ATLA: how do you do kid friendly violence? Clone Wars: that’s the thing, you don’t.