Netflix’s new Avatar prologue alters one of Aang’s best scenes

polygon.com:

The live-actionAvatar: The Last Airbender isn’t supposed to be a shot-for-shot remake of the original animated series. After all, with only eight episodes instead of the first season’s 20, there’s a lot to be condensed and cut and changed. But the showrunners behind the new Avatar did add something to the very beginning.

[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for the first 20 minutes of the live-actionAvatar: The Last Airbender.]

Unlike the animated series, Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn’t start with Katara and Sokka. It starts 100 years prior, when Fire Lord Sozin decides to destroy every last airbender. By placing false plans into the hands of the Earth Kingdom, Sozin uses the misdirection to launch a full-scale assault on the airbenders, who’ve all gathered for a celebration. So we get to see everything as it unfolds — the Fire Nation rounding up children to burn alive, Sozin immolating people on screen (repeatedly), and all that jazz.

It is unflinchingly brutal, and immediately establishes the tone of this remake. The live-action Avatar emphasizes that firebenders can and will immolate you; but the original series clearly showcased the gravity without ever overplaying it.

One of the most powerful moments of the original series is when Aang excitedly returns to the Southern Air Temple — only to find it completely empty, save for the skeleton of his master and dear friend, Gyatso. This is the scene where he comes to terms with the fact that he is the only surviving airbender. And it is a huge gut punch to go from Aang yearning to go home to finding that home completely destroyed.

Showing it all beforehand certainly showcases that this is a darker, grittier version of the story. But having the audience discover the full extent of the Fire Nation’s atrocities along with Aang is just so beautifully understated and masterful. We don’t need to see the violence to know it happened and to feel it along with Aang in the moment. By contrast, the new