Netflix ATLA: S1 Ep 5

Opening chase through the woods was eh. Took note of the Fire Nation helmets. Aside from the gun metal grey for the skull-like mask instead of the porcelain white it was in the original, not bad. Skull stuff like that always reminds me of the "Are we the baddies?" comedy sketch from That Mitchell and Webb Look. Flying scene here is a might green-screen-y. And the "scar on the Earth" that is Senlin Forest. Looks pretty good, but could it have killed them to have more light on it to really separate it from the shadows of the mountain? I also noticed the title having "Air" as its 1st two, "Earth" as its 2nd two & now "Fire". Wrapping up with "The North" & "Legends" being episodes 18-20, which take place in the Northern Water Tribe, it's cool they got all 4 incorporated into one season, but I wonder if they can keep up that trend (Originals seasons, or "Books", were just 1 element based on what element Aang was primarily learning in that season.)

In the original, Sokka just found footprints to signify it was the Fire Nation. They've been avoiding soldiers on their journey so I assume they know Fire Nation soldier footprints by then, but the emblem is a better signifier. Same shot of Aang going to his knees from the sadness & guilt. Was a memorable shot in the show. It's the 1st time we're really told of the Avatar's duties to not just the people of the planet, but the planet itself (and the spirits, which we'll get to soon).
The Beatles last episode, Pac-man now. If this is improv, it's really breaking the immersion (Though Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the Third is the name Aang used (along with an old man disguise) to get into Omashu in the original). At this point in the original, Aang had never dealt with spirits & was less confident in his ability to stop Hei-Bai, but he shows some backbone here, likely due to his interaction with Kyoshi. I hope we get the moment in the show where Hei-Bai takes Sokka & Aang to the Spirit World at night when everything is cast in a blue hue, but Aang doesn't know he's in the Spirit World until dawn breaks & he realizes he's still blue. If not that, something similar, because it was so cool.

Iroh's all better & there on the ship, so Zuko will likely also be going to Crescent Island to Roku's shrine. So not only is Lieutenant Jee feeding info about Zuko's progress to Zhao then Zhao to Azula, THIS is probably where we'll get Zuko's Storm flashback (I know I cried wolf about it last episode, but it definitely should come before the Blue Spirit episode (S1E13). Both together are a great 1-2-punch to endear us to Zuko as he makes his long, but momentous turn to good).
So in this version, Ozai controls the Yuyan archers instead of Zhao, who had just been promoted to Admiral, just taking them from Colonel Shinu because he now outranked him. It would seem a subtle change, but like I said about them dropping the Zuko/Zhao Agni Kai in my review of episode 2, they're taking away a lot of what made Zhao formidable. In the original, he earned his promotions through questionably honorable service, showing he was both capable of getting what he wants and ruthless enough to get it. Here, he has some conniving to him, but just that; he's getting everything for brown-nosing & someone else is giving it to him. Ozai even knows Zuko was the one who found the Avatar, which would be his only remaining claim of resourcefulness being erased. So why is Ozai (the one who pointed this out to Azula) giving Zhao the rank of Admiral & the Yuyan archers?
Also, even though it was one statement, Ozai never pit Zuko & Azula against each other for the throne like this in the original, at least not this blatantly. Ozai absolutely sent Zuko on a wild goose chase to find either the Avatar or proof of the cycle being broken, but he genuinely welcomed him back home after Azula told Ozai that Zuko killed Aang in S2E20 (He didn't actually die. Katara saved him with Spirit Oasis water from the Northern Water Tribe's Spirit Oasis).

Dark spirits coming through to the natural world to wreak havoc lines up with what we learn in the Kyoshi novels. (Kuruk, the Avatar before Kyoshi, fought against dark spirits until he found Father Glowworm, a very powerful dark spirit that created these cracks to feast on human blood). The Avatar can key into the spirits & their world because, as we learn in Legend of Korra, the Avatar's ability to bend all 4 elements as well as reincarnate is due to Raava, the spirit of light & peace, fusing with Wan (the 1st Avatar) & fusing with another person after an Avatar's death. If "The Avatar has to do the impossible." becomes the wisdom Bumi gives Aang for his eventual fight with Ozai instead of the original's "Think like a mad genius.", good. Aang doesn't really use the original's wisdom in his fight against Ozai, but "doing the impossible", although obviously meant to mean the impossible decision to kill Ozai, could be skewed to Aang taking Ozai's bending away through Energybending, which is an unknown, and therefore, "impossible" thing to do.
Was the burnt forest this green-screen-y when they were 1st here? Went back to watch it; Only with Aang's shots does it look green-screened. Sokka & Katara's looked fine. Aang telling them to be quiet reminds me of a similar scene in episode 19 of the original in the Spirit Oasis. Okay, 2 things: One) There goes that cool moment of Aang noticing he's still blue. Actually small potatoes compared to how the music made it feel like this momentous occasion but Aang's actor just nonchalantly got off the rock once he was in. Two) They're not supposed to see Aang as a spirit. Only someone who either has been to the Spirit World themselves, has a deeper connection & understanding with the spirits or a combination of the two can see the spirits, like I mentioned Iroh could do in my episode 4 review. Kinda takes away from focusing on Iroh's spiritual side. So that WAS the Spirit World Kyoshi was in. Okay, Aang's actor's vocal performance is starting to bug me. Not even a molecule of wonder or confusion in his "We're in the Spirit World." delivery WHICH COULD HAVE EASILY BEEN ADR'ED BECAUSE WE CAN'T SEE HIS MOUTH!

Seedy bar... Are we finally getting June & Nyla? So the Avatar returning is public knowledge & they had off-screen adventures that cover the missed episodes? I mean, since I knew to write off the close-to-filler-without-actually-being-filler episodes based on what they condensed, fit into other episodes or flat out didn't need, it's not a huge loss. They just discussed pirates (episode 9 that's not filler because of the titular Waterbending Scroll & the returning pirates they can easily replace), a canyon guide (episode 11, regarded as the worst episode of the series and/because it's truly filler) & stopping a volcano (episode 14, largely shipping episode) right after Bumi. So there's a tiny off-screen time jump (Narrative jump?). But that puts Aang's dealings in episode 7/8 with the spirits right in line with episode 15, which is... June & Nyla's episode! Had a feeling we'd get them now. My only jump-the-gun question is what item of Aang's/Katara's/Sokka's is Nyla going to track them with?

WAN SHI FUCKING TONG?!? THIS EARLY? (He's supposed to be intro'ed in S2E10) This makes no sense. Wan Shi Tong brought his library, along with himself, from the Spirit World to the natural world. Zhao, in his early military career, visited Wan Shi Tong's library & discovered the Moon & Ocean Spirits' physical forms. So he should already be in the natural world, but he's here. How can he be here, unless he didn't give up his spiritual being, unlike Tui & La, the Moon & Ocean Spirits. And is that MASTER OOGWAY'S VA VOICING HIM? Sad that Héctor Elizondo didn't reprise the role (his voice is so unique, somewhat higher registers to lull us into a sense of safety (unless you use his knowledge for nefarious purposes) some nasal that matches the intellect Wan Shi Tong is meant to have but also raspy to reflect both his aged wisdom & his ruthlessness at people who misuse the knowledge he grants. A voice you'd expect a barn owl to have), but Randall Duk Kim is a nice alternative. I'd love to hear his angry side. Also, I know they said Sokka & Katara can't understand him because Aang, as the Avatar, has a connection to the Spirit World & they don't, but it would just complicate things going forward for them & their eventual meeting again in Wan Shi Tong's Library in season 2. Revealing truths like the Swamp? (S2E4)

Huh, Azula's flames are still red but a bit of blue was there... Leaning toward not liking that change. She'll probably learn to make them blue somewhere down the line, but aside from the animation needing a distinction between Zuko's firebending & Azula's, her blue flame burns hotter than red flame & it's supposed to show her unequaled skills in firebending she had from a young age. Her natural talent was supposed to be a point of jealousy for Zuko that even Ozai recognized, so much so that it was a reason why he didn't feel as much sorrow as he should have when he was ordered to kill Zuko by Fire Lord Azulon, his father (After Lu Ten's death, Ozai questioned Iroh's resolve to be a strong Fire Lord & brought this up to Azulon, their father. Azulon was so enraged by this, that he ordered Ozai to kill Zuko so Ozai would know Iroh's pain of losing a first-born son. Ursa (Zuko's mother) caught wind of this and, to keep Zuko safe, made an untraceable poison for Ozai to kill Azulon. Ozai agreed only if Ursa would leave the palace, fearing she might kill him in the same way. Ozai gave him the poison & said his last words were to make him the Fire Lord instead of Iroh). Yes, Azula's more ruthless than Zuko, and episode 3's opening proved that, but if you're going to introduce her early like this, we need more than an archery session & a spar to see that she's a much more skillful fighter than him. I will say that her freaking out about potentially not getting the throne is a good foreshadow to her losing her mind at the end of the series (S3E20).

Hmm, this Zuko has tried to present himself & go about things in a way that shows his royal background, so having Iroh use Zhao as a way to get Zuko to try other ways (despite how underdeveloped I believe Zhao is) is a nice way to open up Zuko to that line of thinking.

Woah, despite how CGI he feels, Hei-Bai looks awesome. Overall design is right from the show & having a reptilian texture to his dark form skin makes him look almost xenomorphic (Alien franchise, not rocks). Genuine laugh out of me with the "cake/THAT'S not what it's saying" bit. Looked back & those cuts that revealed it as the spirit of the forest were there before. Nice attention to detail. No bending in the Spirit World rule still in place. This shows that your physical body, more importantly the physical movements you make with your body, are needed for bending. Another rule for bending that separates it from just a rule-nebulous magic system I mentioned in the episode 1 review.
The only spirit foxes we see are Wan Shi Tong's knowledge seekers, but this feels different. They didn't talk. Wait, is that supposed to be Yue's spirit form? Or a spirit tied to her? (Yue is the princess of the Northern Water Tribe & was born a sickly baby. Her parents took her to the Spirit Oasis to ask the spirits to save her life. They put her in the pond there, her hair turned white & she was cured. She has a connection to Tui, the Moon Spirit & when Zhao kills Tui during the siege of the North, the moon is gone & Waterbenders lose their bending (because the 1st Waterbender was the Moon) Yue sacrifices herself to become the new Moon Spirit) Her having other spiritual powers or at least connections would be a new concept altogether. She falls in love with Sokka so that's why my mind jumped to Yue for this fox talking to him & the fox flashed a... bracelet? on one of its tails that kind of looks Water Tribe in design.
THIS is more in line with The Swamp's (S2E4) visions. Plus, seeing the Southern Raiders attack (S3E16) & we get a glimpse of Yon Rha (The raider responsible for Kya's (Katara & Sokka's mom) death). Oh, having the addition of Katara trying to bend to save her mother's life is new & would be ample enough reason as to why that recurring memory occurred when she was bending earlier in the series. WOAH SURPRISE KOH! Super creepy, well done & Katara for sure lost her face (Koh The Face Stealer, a spirit that steals your face if you show it any emotion, is supposed to tell Aang the physical forms of Tui & La during the siege).
Hakoda! Didn't think we'd see him this season. Oh, and that's how they're incorporating the rite of passage that Bato would have given the group in episode 15. And Bato too! So he might be included in the invasion of the Fire Nation (if they get 2 more seasons). Hmm, Hakoda not being proud of his son is a big departure from his original character, who was always proud & especially enough to leave the village & the safety of Katara & Gran Gran in his hands. However, it fits the way Sokka's been deifying his father & trying to prove he is a skilled leader/warrior/etc., even to a fault. Koh, one face is enough man...
Okay, Aang's actor. You've been letting the sides down. Time to flex again. Or not because I thought you'd be drawn into the vision, but now you can't show any emotion. ...No emotion? You got this! (Love the shot Koh dangling above Aang while talking to him. Again, from the original). OR THEY JUST SAY THE AVATAR HAS IMMUNITY FROM HIM! And all the worry for Aang I should be having has left me. Having Aang withstand the urge to react to everything Koh was saying & doing until he got the information he needed from him (The physical forms of the Moon & Ocean Spirits). The joy on his face when he realized their forms, Koh IMMEDIATELY whipping around to try & steal Aang's face, but seeing Aang's blank stare & Koh's promise of seeing him again (which they did in the online Flash game "Escape from the Spirit World"). That was such a cool scene in the original! To cut it, along with any tension, like that is a TERRIBLE decision.
Alright Aang's actor. ROUND 2! Alright, staring off nice and WAIT THAT'S REALLY GYATSO!?! REDEEM HIM NOW! Pai Sho thing is right from the original, but THEY'RE DOING IT! I mean, it doesn't really take away from his turnabout decision to go along with Pasang's decree to separate him & Aang so readily, but maybe they can do what I said & have him realize the world needed him more than he did. The original NEVER gave Aang an opportunity to speak to Gyatso after his death, so seeing the pain & joy in Aang's face as he hugs Gyatso is a nice acting "thumbs up" for the kid, but I wonder what they're gonna do with the time given with this new territory in terms of circumstance. The Fog of Lost Souls? That's something exclusively from Legend of Korra (the first part is correct, not the "hunting ground for Koh), but it kinda makes sense that people experiencing their darkest memories would be emoting all over the place.
So Koh has the Senlin villagers even though Hei-Bai was the spirit who took them? Eh, sure. They probably lost the path quicker than the Gaang did. So in the original, when Koh takes your face, it's not fatal; There's a character in the graphic novels (The Search) that has his face taken by Koh but is still alive. But here, it's showing that when he catches you emoting, he paralyzes you, taking your face is a separate thing and also how he feeds & it kills you (or "Your soul will be lost forever.")

Huh, so in the original, it was Kuruk that scrapped with Koh because he took the face of Ummi, his fiance. But here they're having Roku be the one so Aang has a need to go to Roku instead of, in the original story, Roku sensing Aang's spirit in the Spirit World & sending the spirit of Fang (his dragon & animal companion in life) to tell Aang to get to his (Roku's) shrine on Crescent Island. This is all so Roku can tell Aang about Sozin's Comet & how Ozai plans to use its ability to power up Firebending to end the war with victory for the Fire Nation. Uh, so far as I know the time passage is the same between the Spirit World & the natural world (in fact I know for sure because of a joke line in the original. Sokka was trapped in the Spirit World for 24 hours & when Katara asks how he feels after mentioning the amount of time, he doesn't dispute it, instead having to "...seriously need to use the bathroom!") In the original, it takes them the better part of the day to go from Senlin to Crescent Island, and that's with rushed flying on Appa because they needed to get their on the solstice, the next day. I think Sokka & Katara would be LONG dead before Aang traveled from Senlin to Crescent Island.

WHY! EEE! ESS! This is (almost) EXACTLY what I needed from this Gyatso! Admitting that keeping Aang at the temple would have doomed him & the world A.K.A. THE WORLD NEEDED THE AVATAR MORE THAN HE NEEDED AANG! There's the justification for Gyatso so readily accepting that Aang needed to leave. Even the prospect of having something similar in the original would have been nice to see. I say "almost", however, because we still needed to see Gyatso & Aang have fun. We got it here, but it's kind of too little, too late. ACTING! Oh please, come back & give more time with Gyatso. It still remains my biggest gripe about the series even now. Dammit "We'll have more time." Silence. Red flag; He's not coming back.
Really cameraman? Panning up slightly, then back down again when Aang covers the acorn? Couldn't they have reshot that? So he's going without Appa's help? I imagine he can go faster than Appa just on weight difference alone, but it can't be much faster.

God dammit, I forgot all about the Storm flashback we still don't have (and I think needed before going into the next episode).
Azula still not having blue fire STILL upsets me.
Zhao has been given no opportunity to show he's formidable right before he captures Aang (because the next episode title is "Masks", which is absolutely S1E13 "The Blue Spirit", who is Zuko using a mask to disguise himself while saving Aang). You might say his "contacts" are the point, but that is a far cry from what he was in the original.
However, wanted to point out that in the original, Sokka & Katara were sick from the titular Storm of episode 12 and that's why they weren't around to save Aang when captured by Zhao. I just realized that Sokka & Katara being incapacitated under threat of death by Koh is the new reason and there's certainly more immediacy to it.

So Gyatso's final message: (Paraphrasing here) "Let go of your past guilt & self-doubt, especially over things you can't control so you can stop isolating yourself & focus on what you're fighting for." Eh, trying to tie it to not only Aang, but also Zuko, Azula & Zhao kinda left it garbled when you look at it.
Also, since we're retreading on a lot of episodes of the original for the next episode here (8, half of 12 assuming they do Zuko's flashback concurrently with 13, 13 itself) I wonder if they'll have time to put Jeong Jeong/The Deserter (S1E16) in before they get to 18-20. His teaching Aang Firebending pre-emptively leads to Aang burning Katara's hands (She's fine; She discovers she has healing abilities with her Waterbending) which has HUGE ramifications for him down the line. (He swears to never Firebend again & holds to that until the second half of the 3rd/last season, but he needs to let go of that guilt (which is why Gyatso's message reminded me of this) as part of a process of trying to master the Avatar State (S2E19) & when he fails to do so, he still doesn't want to Firebend when Zuko joins the Gaang & needs to relearn Firebending (S3E13)).

PROS:
Aang's acting when big emotion is needed: When he needs to deliver, his acting is great. Gyatso's burial, reuniting with him here & his pleading with Bumi at the end of their fight. All done maybe not the best an older actor could have done, but still believable.
Big bad spirits: CG fidelity aside, Hei-Bai & Koh's designs were great. They were taken from the show save for one thing that was unique to this series: Koh's "human" form (when he startles Sokka & Katara in their memories). He can't change form in the original, but he doesn't utilize people's memories in it either, so a form change is fine. Plus, that white face with black circles around the eyes & red lips looks creepy in those rush-to-camera-cut-to-black horror movie shots.

Nyla the Shirshu: She looks great & is one of the cooler animals in a world of cool animals because of its capabilities (blindness, unbelievable sense of smell, paralyzing whip tongue) & it's one of only 2 triple animal hybrids (the other being the saber-tooth moose lion, seen in season 2).

Gyatso, the Almost Redeemed: It took a while, but we finally got a reason why he chose to let Aang go. And, like I said, that's fine to depart from the original character so long as you give sufficient enough reason, but we didn't get it for just about 5 whole episodes (decision was at beginning of 1st ep, reasoning was at end of 5th ep). Instead, it felt like they tried to have their cake & eat it too by wanting Aang not to forget who he was while still sending him away to fall more in line as the Avatar & not discover who he was as Aang. It's late & it's still a mess up, but it's certainly not as egregious as it was.

CONS:
Aang's acting when big emotion isn't needed: His normal acting, however, is either too bland or he doesn't stay with an emotion long enough. An example in this episode is when they first land in Senlin Forest, he says "Because I don't know what I'm doing!" right before slumping to his knees. He raises his eyebrows, eyes go wide, shakes his head while looking around & you can hear how overwhelmed he is in the delivery. All great. However, by the end of the line, his face (to me) is unreadable emotionally. And even when Katara shows him the forest will grow back with the acorn: no slight lip curl, no eyebrow pinch, nothing. In terms of acting, he's got nice highs but really bad lows.

Regular bad CG spirits: While their designs are great, their CG could have been better. I'm not the best at describing why CG feels off, but compared to other real things in the shot, they felt too sharp/crisp? Which might be more of a compositing error but still falls under VFX.

Underdeveloped enemies: Those last scenes with Zuko, Azula & Zhao really brought attention to how much more we needed from these characters, Zuko & Zhao especially because of the next episode (Hope they have enough for Azula in the other seasons). I'll talk about it in that review, but I don't think Zuko's flashback ON TOP OF the brief scene he has with Aang after saving him from Zhao will give the latter the effectiveness it needs. Zhao, likewise needed more (his Agni Kai especially) to establish him as a better threat to Aang than Zuko, because for season 1 of the original, he was; He successfully captures Aang and, if it weren't for Zuko's intervention, he would have handed him to Ozai on a silver platter.

OVERALL STANDALONE: That's a lot on the proverbial plate, but eager to feast on the next episode.
OVERALL KNOWING ORIGINAL: Fixed big character mistake, but letting multiple smaller ones get bigger.