A Person

'What if he really needs it?'

'He doesn't need it.'

'I would feel terrible if I was the reason he stays stuck there.'

I found this meme on Twitter.

I think this supposed to be a flex on Sokka, but it just reminds me of how Katara could only have Aang as a legitimate love interest but Sokka could have options. And that's not even counting the girls from the comics.

Noone can remember a time where the southern tribe had benders, where they had an actual bending culture. Where the hunts and the fishing trips and the foraging in the tundra and literally everything was accompanied by waterbenders. Throwing up snow or ice to block the route of an animal, gathering up fish and safely navigating sudden rapids, clearing and creating paths to local flora and strengthening ice sheets so noone fell in.

Sokka is the first of the Southern Water Tribe to relearn how to sail with a bender, to trust that they can navigate far beyond the capabilities of a rudder should they need to.

Katara brought bending back to the South, and Sokka matched it every step of the way (well,,,,, every step of the way post Kyoshi lmao) and I'm so,,,

On Sokka, non-benders and Katara not being out of water.

Disclaimer: This is an angry rant. You are allowed to disagree or rant back at me in the comments, just don't be a dick about it. I apologize in advance because you will see excessive punctuation, profanity and me getting more and more unhinged. Spoilers ahead.

I have to begin by saying that this movie is an absolute visual delight (props to all the artists!) and it was a lot of fun to meet the characters again, this time as adults. I was laughing and crying and yelling by myself at home almost the entire time, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself.

However, one of the reasons for my yelling was also frustration LOL

I watched it twice, and once the excitement of having new video content after decades cooled off, the problems became much louder in my perception and no amount of nostalgia can make me unsee them.

It felt like seeing old friends for the first time in years, but then also being upset at what these friends have been doing with their lives. Not to sound like a disappointed parent, but… where did all the potential go?

Several points upset me, but in this post I want to talk about a few that are interconnected.

Characters weren't explored properly.

This movie is about Aang dealing with the loss of his people. That focus isn't a problem in itself, but it became one, because unfortunately the screenplay didn't manage to deal well with the rest of the characters in the short time it had.

As a consequence, we ended up with characters that felt quite flat. I'd say Zuko feels the most similar to the OG, but he had such few lines that it might just be my mind filling in the gap. Suki was removed completely without even a mention, which was a pity. 

But the worst effect of that was seen in Sokka, in my opinion, because:

2. Sokka-who?

Who was that caricature of Sokka on my screen?? This movie did my guy so dirty.

Sokka is introduced working alone in a messy workshop. The only people interested in him are a handful of kids who don't know who he is or why the Avatar would consider him a valuable ally.

Are you freaking kidding me? 

Sokka was arguably the smartest member of the Gaang. He was the guy with the plan, the pragmatist, the person who kept things on schedule, who planned WHOLE INVASIONS at sixteen! He was brave, strategic, and skilled! 

And you want to convince me that this guy spends his days tinkering away with weird prototypes that only half-work? That he works alone instead of with a team? You are telling me that no one invited him to work on anything with any prestige or importance even though he was on the hotspot of the group of rebels who ended the war and set the stage for how the new world would be rebuilt? 

You really want to convince me that Sokka was so sidelined that a group of random kids has easy access to pester him during the day, and he has to paint exaggerated pictures of his very real and very heroic actions during the war just to make himself feel better?

Oh, and this is, apparently, also someone who, despite being the Tech Guy, has never learned how to pilot an airship even though one of his best friends is the literal Fire Lord and owns a whole fleet. 

Worse, you want me to believe that the guy who was a leader on two separate invasions, saved his friends’ lives multiple times, and made fun of Fire Lord Ozai to his face, now can only go into panic mode when a crisis presents? This guy has been through a literal war!

And since we're talking consistency in characterization: Sokka likes to shop and has great sense of style and YOU PUT HIM IN ILL FITTING CLOTHES /screams/

He's supposed to be 29 and they tried to keep him an awkward teenager that, I'd argue, he never even was in the first place. Everything was meant to reduce him to comic relief and it is such.a.waste. Sokka is plenty funny originally, with all of his other characteristics in place.

He isn't allowed a single heroic moment in the movie without it being undermined in some way. The one moment he is treated the same as the other heroes is when they are beaten by Tagah, that's it.

The crisis in the ship? “He steered with his feet” – Why? Why do all the others get their big moments of contribution to solve the crisis and Sokka's has to be something that gets him laughed at?

I kid you not, during the ship crisis, here is how the rest of the gang is shown:

Focused, strong, putting their strength and skill to impressive use. Katara goes biblical and pulls a Moses.

Meanwhile, this is Sokka in that same situation:

…

Oh, for crying out loud!

And if anyone says this is because Sokka is The Funny One, I will remind you that a character can be funny without being made the butt of the joke every time.

Because it gets worse. Later on, there's the fight in Republic City, when he disappears early on, having fallen into a storehouse, just to show up later on an absolutely OUTRAGEOUS scene where lobotomized Katara says:

3. “Oh, no! I'm out of water!”

BITCH, NO YOU'RE NOT!!!

YOU'RE LITERALLY NOT!!!!!! WHATAREYOUEVENTALKINGABOUT??!!

Water is everywhere YOU LEARNED THIS AT FOURTEEN!!! it was a major plot point and everything  Where is Master Katara???? Has the hair-straightening treatment she's been using caused her brain damage? Who is this impostor?

The water you just used is still in the air. You're in the middle of a city where people 100% have water around. And are you gonna tell me NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE SWEATING? there are two sweaty shirtless hunks right beside you, are you pretending not to see so you won't be tempted?

What the hell was this scene, honestly? 

Why would anyone announce any weakness out loud when cornered by enemies? And, I'm sorry, why did the others stop fighting? Was Toph out of earth to bend? Was Zuko out of fire? Were they waiting for mommy's permission?

It's obvious that this atrocity of a scene was just the set-up to give room for Sokka to come “save the day” with the water bombs and I can't even begin to express how mad that makes me. 

His workshop is implied to be in the South Pole. Are you telling me he built this in a few minutes in the middle of a fight while the city was on fire and people needed help evacuating? Someone please give this man his sword and his personality back.

Balloon water bombs are things kids play with. They might have thrown The Denied off balance, but they didn't do any real damage:

They only became a real threat once the water got in the hands of a bender:

Also you cannot convince all that water came from those balloons. Did Katara look at Toph and remember that time they were in prison and that she can pull water from the air?  Did that come from all the women looking at Zuko shirtless?

“But he's not a bender, what did you want him to do?”

Things like these:

Which still gave us funny moments like these:

The OG series managed to give Sokka plenty of truly heroic moments without the need for this kind of cheap device that does nothing but nerf a genuinely strong character.

Which is why I say that this treatment of Sokka was absolutely a decision. One they didn't have to make.

4. The non-bender situation

How ironic is it that in a movie where the “bad guys” are non-benders, who believe the only way to get power is by getting bending, the writers give such an infantilizing treatment to the only non-bender of the Gaang?

None of the other character is treated like that. Even Aang who's still disapointingly immature is not infantilized like this.

There was no resolution to that plot point either. Once again the writers are not quite able to resolve this problem, and I don't even mean give a solution in universe, I mean that in the narrative, there's no direction given to this problem, not even a decision or policy that is wrong in the long run but at least moves the narrative along on that front.

We have a scene in the credits where some of the Denied seem to be doing community service? It is unclear. And we have that girl becoming an Air Acolyte, but that's it.

And then there's Tagah, who Avatar Sonam had to trap in an ice sphere, creating a huge mountain, but conveniently disappears in mist and sparkles as our boy Aang recites poetry :) 

It's no wonder the inequality of non-benders is a sore that festered for years and years until it exploded in Korra's days for her to deal with.

how i got here is not important

"Wanna see us do it again?"

one of the more baffling decisions regarding this franchise

comments from fans and actual Chinese language users:

They had historical consultants for the show's technology and real-world allusions, such as figuring out how the Fire Nation's trebuchets would work.

A cultural consultant who was an actual professor in the field.

A blind consultant to advise on how Toph would behave or move.

Consultants for martial arts, including martial artists, stunt coordinators, etc.

It's unspeakable how insulting in comparison that "According to CHATGPT" part of the panel is.

Just the sheer fact that they chose to write that instead of, IDK, citing the sources the LLM inventedlisted? That they felt comfortable writing that?

That's even ignoring them yapping about how they are shying away from real-world allusions and creating their own language and removing all those real-world references that grounded the setting.

My brother your shows expect me to take the conflict of fighting “The Dark Avatar” seriously 💀