Why Street Fighter x ATLA may never happen
Now that ATLA is getting its very own fighting game, the already quite sensitive fandom of ATLA is going to inevitably come into contact with the most disrespectful and hilarious online subculture: The Fighting Game Community. It doesn't matter how many Ao3 shutdowns you have survived, nothing can prepare you for the Jann Lee jingle.
Jann Lee Jingle
Don't worry about the girl, this sort of stuff happens all the time in Dead or Alive.
So naturally, I thought about what would happen if ATLA and Street Fighter ever crossed over. A thought that hit a wall once I started thinking about it more.
Visual Design
Comparing Korra and Chun-Li really shows off the different character design philosophies between the two series.
Where Korra feels timeless and practical, SF Alpha's Chun-Li seems very young and modern. Korra is blue and white, while Chun-Li is blue and gold, complimentary colors that make her brighter and bolder in comparison. SF Alpha's art style also puts heavier emphasis on musculature, which makes Korra appear skinny in comparison.
Things get worse once we compare the male characters.
And now, because I thrive on conflict, I am going to compare and contrast Ryu and Zuko, the two characters who represent the extremes of Avatar Studios' and Capcom's design philosophies. In the interest of transparency, I personally prefer Ryu's character and story over Zuko-it's just more meaningful and relatable to me, personally.
Yes I am comparing a prince to a hobo. Zuko does have some musculature but it is covered up by traditional clothing. His clothing is pristine and his hair is long and flowing. Ryu has none of that, the jagged edges of his plain white gi giving him an aggressive edge. His hair is cropped short, with a bandana to keep his bangs out of his face. Bright red on the gloves and a certain glint in his eye gives you a hint that this guy is no pushover.
The Chinese proverb, "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" seems apt here. There are crouching tigers, people who proclaim their power boldly, and hidden dragons, those who prefer to hide their true nature until it is necessary.
I have looked through the ATLA and LOK art books over and over again, and not a single character has the ripped sleeves or torn up cuffs. It gives an aggressive, scrappy look that I imagine the creators didn't want any background characters to have.
Where Avatar Studios pushes for grounded, subtle, and practical designs, Capcom has always pushed Street Fighter to be bright, colorful, and extreme.
Tone
This also leads into a contrasting of tones. An under-discussed fact of ATLA's production is that bending developed due to restrictions on violence for children's programming. Namely, actual striking was out of the question. Elemental manipulation inspired by real-world martial arts was the compromise the creators had to make in order to tell their story. Ironically, getting half your face burn off hurts a lot more than E Honda's Hundred Hand Slap but the standards for children's television are created by people with more complaints than sense. Don't get me started on waterbenders and frostbite.
Street Fighter is a video game series which a much older target audience, which means it can get away with a lot more in terms of content and themes. More than that, is the colorful cast of characters from all around the world, including complete freaks of nature like Blanka and Necro.
In Avatar, the characters fight each other in order to further the plot. In Street Fighter, the fights are the plot! In a lot of ways, Street Fighter shares more DNA with anime and martial arts movies than Avatar does, not being afraid to be ridiculous and weird. Rose is a whole Jojo reference as a character-you know that Bryke would never get away with that!
Protagonists
Comparing either Aang or Korra to Ryu is like comparing Red Pandas to Grey Wolves. They exist in the same category (mammals, heroes) and have some superficial similarities but they behave fundamentally differently.
Ryu represents a certain archetype of the wandering warrior in search of a challenge that does not exist in the American imagination. I say American, not Western, because ATLA is an American show specifically. And Street Fighter 2 was a surprise hit in Europe back in the day, too.
You could argue that Korra is selfish in a lot of ways, but her core motivation of being a hero isn't. Ryu's motivations, meanwhile, are entirely selfish. Travel the world in search of strong opponents in order to get stronger. He will help people out when the opportunity arises, but that is not his primary motivation.
On top of that, odds are that the new Avatar, Pali, is not going to struggle with the desire to kill. Aang had his moments, but Ryu's central part of his arc is confronting his ego and desire to kill.
Even if Bryke had the ability to make an Avatar show with a higher rating, I doubt they would make violence the core part of the main character's arc. I am open to be proven wrong, but I doubt they'll have a chance to, considering the obvious.
Conclusion
Avatar's days as a franchise are numbered going forward. Of course the fanbase will still go strong, but the leaks have given Paramount the perfect excuse to cancel any Avatar projects moving forward. I suspect that it was inevitable that Avatar Studios would be shut down, due to the lack of support from the corporation.
Street Fighter as a franchise has a much larger audience globally and is a major part of Capcom's brand identity. Chun-Li is more iconic than Katara, for better or worse.
There is a possibility, however slim, that the rights to Avatar will be sold and bought by a Japanese company. Maybe Capcom, maybe SNK, maybe Bandai-Namco. Maybe they won't do anything new or different with it, maybe you'll spot Pali going toe to toe with Menat in Street Fighter 7.
Life is unpredictable like that.
