Cinepals - AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (Netflix) 1x5 Review & Discussion!

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

This is our honest and immediate thoughts on Avatar The Last Airbender Episode 3 from the new live action adaptation by Netflix. What did they get right? What did they get wrong? Does it work? The live action show stars: • Gordon Cormier as Aang  • Kiawentiio as Katara • Ian Ousley as Sokka • Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko • Elizabeth Yu as Azula • Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Robocop, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Total Recall 2070, Ahsoka) as Uncle Iroh • Daniel Dae Kim (Hellboy, Lost, The Legend of Korra, Saints Row IV, Spider-Man 2, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Crash, 24, ER, Star Trek Enterprise, Hulk, Angel, Star Trek: Voyager, The Practice, Seinfeld, The Pretender, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Jackal, Walker Texas Ranger, Cradle 2 the Grave, The Divergent Series) as Fire Lord Ozai • Ken Leung (Rush Hour, The Family Man, Vanilla Sky, Saw, Inside Man, X-Men The Last Stand, Star Wars Episode VII, The Blacklist, Old, Inhumans, Joker: Folie à Deux) as Commander Zhao Join our Patreon www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay for the full length reaction to this show and many others ans subscribe to our YouTube channel for the cutdowns www.youtube.com/@cinepals   SOCIAL MEDIA ~CinePals~ Twitter & Instagram: @TheCinePals ~Jaby Koay~ Twitter & Instagram: @JabyKoay ~Achara Kirk~ Twitter & Instagram: @AcharaKirk

Well, after that little cry fest that we had yesterday, I'm very much looking forward to this. Senna. Pals. What's going on, everybody? I'm Jabby Kauai, joined by Achara Kirk. What's up? Continuing forward with Avatar, The Last Airbender, the Netflix live action adaptation. Thanks so much for coming back and hanging with us some more.

Here we go. Oh, my God, my heart, man. I just find it profoundly interesting how they've fused things together. And it makes sense. Yeah, and they made it make sense for this live action adaptation, forcing. these characters to like look closely at their trauma and it's interesting and it gives the actress stuff to play with it does an interesting thing with the story and the plot because now the characters are kind of separated like ang's friends are stuck and so he's got to go do this thing

to get to back to here to save his friends and pull them out and so it's neat Arden Cho was great casting for June that's an old colleague of mine old friend of mine she looks great as June I thought like because I'm using my memory of the cartoon I'm like oh she's like that's actually quite nice they nailed it yeah in casting her if you guys want to see me act opposite of her do a youtube search for spy game dorkman scott dorkman scott my old friend is the one that directed the short film that where i'm acting opposite of her it's kind of fascinating to see like how far she's come my god good for you that's cool i have some feelings i want to hold off on speaking about until you until you say you're yeah no i i like what they did here obviously if something can get me

emotionally, then I'm like, you've done your job. I'm not as actively comparing it to what happens in later episodes. So I'm just allowing the story that's being told here to affect me. And it really did. I think in recent years with the content that we've been getting on Netflix and other streaming platforms, a lot of it has kind of dealt with the trauma that we all kind of experience and fears and all of that. And I really like what they did with, you know, entering the spirit world and then having to face the darkest moment in your life. I've always wondered what happened with Katara and her mom exactly and then watching it play out. Like I already had an inkling that she probably felt she caused her mom's death in some way. But watching it play out in that way and seeing it

through her eyes as a little girl who's like, wants desperately to help her mother, but can't. Like, it's not her fault, but you can see how deep down she probably feels like it is. Whereas for her mom, it's like, no, I love you. I would always sacrifice my life for you because you're my child and I need to protect you. It was incredibly moving and difficult to watch. Yeah. Yeah. I thought the little girl they cast his guitar was nice casting

because she did a really good job with just handling that moment. We saw that scene play out in one piece as well, and I thought they justified it better here than in one piece for me. I was mildly offended by that moment, though. Tell me why. Because it felt like it was manipulating me. And I'm like, oh, I'm kind of angry right now. What, like with the music and stuff?

With the mom getting fucking blasted with fire and straight to her face. I'm like, I don't know if I needed that. But you knew, we've seen it. Yeah, we've seen it in glimpses, and it's just like, it hurt me to see it to the point when I'm like, you're manipulating me emotionally right now, and I don't appreciate it. I'm like, okay, what the fuck? Oh, God. Okay, hold on.

I wasn't ready for that. This is a lot. If I watch this a second time, I'm not going to feel the same way I'm feeling right now. Right, because you know it's coming. Maybe I'm feeling triggered because I lost my dad. It was just like, whoa, okay. That's it. That's all.

That's what I had to get off my time. It was probably well done. It was just, I'm not ready to say it's good yet, that part. I was too busy being offended. I was too busy being a bitch. I like the episode. Don't get me wrong. Nicely put together.

It worked on me, though. So it did whatever it needed to do for me. And I'm sure that for many people watching, maybe they feel the same as me or maybe some people might feel the same as you. No, no, no. I would bet money that most people are with you. I would bet money on that. I'm just sensitive.

Well, yeah, because you, like you said, you're triggered. We'll just take it as you were triggered, maybe. That's just me trying to find an excuse in the dark, you know. The spirit creature looked good. Appa still looks great. The little cockroach-looking spirit spider thing looked really good. I was touched by the scene of Eng talking to...

Giazzo. Giazzo again. I was like, oh, this is really nice. I didn't expect him to be actually Giazzo, just because, you know, we'd been trick-y-trixying the entire episode with the demon or whatever. That's what I liked about it. Yeah, I was always on my toes.

I was like, wait, is he going to, it's the pin, like, is this the moment when the pennies drop and he's like, no, you're not really him. But it was so beautiful for Ang to have that moment with him and to like be close to him. But it breaks my heart. He has to go save his friends. And in doing so, he has to let go of this opportunity to be with his family or his teacher, someone who means a lot to him. I mean, as someone who was raised a Buddhist, the whole thing that Giazzo is talking about, about, you know, like letting go and all of that, like, letting go of those traumas and things that are holding you back, I think it's like a very valuable lesson. I really felt the kind of the themes and the lessons that the episode and perhaps the show in general is trying to tell us, which is like, you know, have hope. Also, you got to let go of those fears and blaming your stuff.

for things that were not your fault, you know, that they're holding you back. Yeah, it was a very Goodwill hunting moment. Yeah, it was just, it was just really beautifully done. I liked it a lot. There's something about somebody who's guiding you, telling you as a young person, it's not your fault that just kind of messes with you emotionally, don't know why. Like when I saw that in Goodwill Hunting, it also messed with me. It's just like seeing someone who's guiding a younger individual and telling them,

it's not your fault and like having to be like okay with letting go of all that guilt you've been harboring you know that's that's tough there's something interesting in the way that it was acted up by giatso where it seemed to be implying some kind of rule that we weren't let in on and that's the fascinating thing and i was sort of like okay what what is it exactly that he's sacrificing because it hasn't been made clear overtly and it was kind of fascinating because i was sort of searching for something in his body language or something that perhaps indicated that he's saying to Ang in some way or to the audience, this is the last time we're going to see each other. Yeah, you definitely got that sense. He made some kind of sacrifice

for that moment. Well, yeah, because I mean, if, you know, you go by Buddhist teachings, right, which the Air Temple, like the Air Nomads are supposed to be based off of Tibetan monks, Ang was surprised that Giazzo voluntarily stepped out of the wheel of reincarnation, right? So he he gave up the opportunity to come back in a new life in order to stay in the spirit realm in order to help Eng in some way. Now, we don't know like exactly what the rules of that. Right. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm driving it. It's like it's interesting to me to explore that. Like I guess it's up to the audience because I don't imagine the show is going to come back and explain it. No. Right. And so he abandoned something in order to give Eng that moment.

And that's what's interesting. It's like, I don't know if he's stuck there forever or if he has to give himself up to the little cockroach creature or what. Or if now he can move outside of the wheel into enlightenment. Like I have no idea what's next for him, but he obviously seems to think he's never going to see Eng again. It seemed like he made a sacrifice. Yeah. And it could also just be as simple as like the spirit realm isn't as easily like navigated as the physical realm. And so if he happened to chance upon Giazzo in that moment,

maybe the odds of him finding him again are very, very low. Oh, perhaps that's what it was. And also, like, maybe Ang might be caught up in the responsibilities of what it is to be an avatar. He might not have time to even come back. So, yeah, it was, I thought it was, like, really nicely done by the actor who's playing Giazzo. Because he just, there was this thing of, like, acceptance, which is, also like one of those great qualities of monks um is often you you get the sense sometimes like when you're talking to an older monk it's like whatever you're saying they have a lot of understanding

and it's like they know you know and he's just like yeah okay i'll see you later anyways you guys hopefully enjoyed this thanks so much for hanging i'm jabbi kui this is achara kirk peace out