In trying to make Sokka ‘less sexist,’ Netflix’s Avatar cheapens the Kyoshi Warriors
In the rollout for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans got a bit up in arms. This isn’t unheard of for the ATLA fandom, having already seen one live-action adaptation do them dirty and with a bit of natural defensiveness built in from many having watched and loved a show for almost 20 years. So when Kiawentiio, the actor playing Katara in the new live-action TV show, claimed the show had taken “out the element of how sexist [Sokka] was,” fans were miffed.
It didn’t help that the quote was anchored in the story by a claim that this was one of many “iffy” moments from the original show, or that Ian Ousely, who plays Sokka, was quoted in the same paragraph saying the show was bringing “more weight with realism in every way.” This is the sort of framing in a profile that does the vision of this show no favors, since it feels like they missed the point of the sexism Sokka displayed in the original episode, “The Warriors of Kyoshi.”
Unfortunately, the same issues plague the live-action episode they’re referencing, “Warriors.” Rather than add more nuance and care to the story of Sokka encountering the Kyoshi Warriors, Netflix’s Avatar opts to smooth down the edges, filing everything away until all that’s left crumbles.
[Ed. note: This episode contains spoilers for the second episode of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, and compares it with the corresponding episode (“The Warriors of Kyoshi”) in the animated series.]
In the two Airbender shows, both Kyoshi Warrior episodes start the same: Aang, Katara, and Sokka land on Kyoshi Island and promptly get ambushed by the Kyoshi Warriors. But pretty quickly, the live-action adaptation pivots from the source material, setting up Suki (Maria Zhang) as someone who feels all the weight of being a Kyoshi Warrior, and the ways in which that keeps her on Kyoshi Island. She’s skeptical of the idea that Sokka is also a “protector” of his village — after all, if he’s protecting his village, what is he doing here?
It’s a far
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