History Series / AvatarTheLastAirbender2024

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Master your element.]]'']]

->''Water. Earth. Fire. Air.\\
For millennia, the four nations have lived in harmony, a peace made possible by the Avatar… the one person with the ability to master all four elements and protect the delicate balance between nations.\\
When one Avatar dies, their spirit is reborn into a new body in an eternal cycle. Since the death of the last Avatar, the new incarnation has yet to emerge.\\
And so Fire Lord Sozin, the ruthless leader of the Fire Nation, believes this is his moment to launch a merciless campaign to conquer the world. His first step is to eliminate the one person who could stand in his way.\\
The next master of all four elements, an Airbender who may not be ready for the responsibility of becoming the Avatar.''
-->-- '''Kyoshi''', opening narration

** Sokka's conflict with the Kyoshi Warriors and Suki stems less from sexism but rather from his insecurity that Suki is much better at combat than he is, especially since his sworn duty is to protect the Southern Water Tribe as its warrior. He does get over it by the end of the episode with Suki's help.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatarthelastairbender2024.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Master your element.]]'']]

*** Although its a brilliant story beat to have [[spoiler: Zuko's crew be comprised of the 41st Division--the soldiers he spoke up for in the war room--]], it's clear by conventional numbers that the entire 41st Division could not have [[spoiler: been spared from their mission by becoming the crew of Zuko's ship]]. Per Wikipedia, a division consists of 6,000 to 25,000 soldiers while naval vessels generally consists of a few hundred sailors per ship.

-->-- '''Kyoshi'''

->''"Time is a funny thing. The past, the future, it all gets mixed up. There's only one way to keep it straight. Always remember who you are."''

* ShoutOut: The genocide of the Air Nomads bears many similarities to the infamous Order 66 from Franchise/StarWars; much like the Jedi, the Air Nomads are wiped out via an ambush to pave the way for an evil and tyrannical power to rise, individual masters are overwhelmed by multiple opponents as they fight in vain to defend themselves and their students, their sacred temple is set ablaze and not even the youngest are spared.

A Creator/{{Netflix}} production, the first episode premiered on the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles on February 15, 2024, with the rest of the episodes debuting on the platform on February 22, 2024.

* FanNickname:
** Zuko's Fist for [[spoiler: the 41st Division]]

** Zuko's Fist for the [[spoiler: 41st Division]]

** Per Wikipedia, a military division generally consists of 6,000 to 25,000 soldiers, while a military vessel generally consists of a few hundred sailors. While it's a [[spoiler: brilliant story beat to have Zuko's crew be comprised of the 41st Division--the soldiers he spoke up for in the war room--, it's clear the entire 41st Division could not have been spared from their mission by becoming the crew of Zuko's ship]].

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance:
** In the cartoon, Aang buys a bison whistle from the market in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWaterbendingScroll The Waterbending Scroll]]". Here he already has one after emerging from the ice, and uses it after awakening in the South Pole. And speaking of "The Waterbending Scroll", Katara ends up retrieving it as early as the trip to the Southern Air Temple, as Gran Gran gave it to her in a bag for the trip to save Aang.
** In the cartoon, Avatar Kyoshi didn't make an appearance until after Aang and his friends left the North Pole. Here, she's the first previous Avatar whom Aang makes contact with, and he does so during his first visit to Kyoshi Island. She is also the narrator explaining the elements at the beginning, rather than Katara.
** Azula, Mai (played by Thalia Tran), and Ty Lee (played by Momona Tamada), who didn't appear until the second season of the original show, make their first appearance in the third episode here (technically Azula did appear in the first season, but unidentified and only in cameos).
** Wan Shi Tong (played by Creator/RandallDukKim) also makes his debut in season 1 here, when he was first introduced in season 2 of the original show.
** Teo and the Mechanist are met at Omashu instead of the Northern Air Temple.
** [[BigBad Fire Lord Ozai]] shows himself as early as episode 2 in the remake, whereas in the original show he was TheFaceless in both seasons 1 and 2 and didn't fully reveal himself until season 3.

* RuderAndCruder: Minor swears have been added where there were none in the original animated series. Even the first episode has a member of Zuko's crew remark that they're freezing their asses off in the Southern Water Tribe.

** In the cartoon, Avatar Kyoshi didn't make an appearance until after Aang and his friends left the North Pole. Here, she's the first previous Avatar whom Aang makes contact with, and he does so during his first visit to Kyoshi Island.

* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: While Zhao is still thrown into the river like in the original, [[spoiler:here it is [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork Zuko who does so]], not the Ocean Spirit, by turning his own fire whip against him]].

The show is set in a world where people called benders can [[ElementalPowers manipulate]] the elements of [[NaturalElements water, fire, earth, and air]]. A powerful being capable of bending all four elements known as the Avatar traditionally maintains balance between the four {{Elemental Nation}}s: the Air Nomads, the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, and the Earth Kingdom.

** The TimeSkip at the Northern Water Tribe is cut. This makes the self-taught Katara an [[InstantExpert overnight master]] who is merely recognized by Paku, instead of one who improved immensely with weeks or months of his tutelage.

** Zuko's hype about confronting the avatar. The conflict with Iroh isn't train hard vs take it easy, but about Iroh teaching him the advanced forms he thinks he needs to win. Then, he isn't disappointed that his FinalBattle with the Avatar is with a child instead of a century-old master.
** Zuko is driven to approach Zhao not just for information, but to repair damage to the ship caused by Aang's escape.
** The [[MeleeATrois three-way]] GambitPileup of Zhao vs Zuko chasing Aang to the fire temple. The Gaang tricking the fire sages into letting them in to the sanctum to meet Roku.
** Zhao figures out Zuko was the Blue Spirit and hints about it with delicious subtext
** Sokka takes Yue flying on Appa. It crams tons of romance, chemistry, a demonstration of Sokka's growth, AND the discovery of the fire nation attack into just a couple minutes of screen time.
** Zuko vs Katara at the North Pole was far less impactful, both because she doesn't get her victory and because he doesn't get his comeback. He also doesn't notice her improvement with the memorable line, "You little peasant. You found a master!"
** Zuko doesn't capture Aang [[spoiler:at the north pole]], a moment that demonstrates his shortsightedness for seasons to come. It also lets him confide to Aang that he "doesn't need luck", because struggle has made him strong
** Zhao's fate shows his pride: [[spoiler:grabbed by the ocean spirit, his last act is to refuse Zuko's help]]
** Iroh and Zuko recognize that they are fugitives, so Azula's cunning season 2 betrayal will be hard to fit in.

** Aang never demonstrates how to fly on Appa. The Gaang learned "Yip yip!" off-screen.
** The TimeSkip at the Northern Water Tribe is cut. This makes the self-taught Katara an [[InstantExpert overnight master]] who is merely recognized by Paku, instead of one who improved immensely with weeks or months of his tutelage. It cheapens the respect she earns from Paku. This is a common criticism of a poorly-written Strong Female Protagonist - that they don't struggle to earn top-tier abilities, only recognition for them.

* MotiveDecay:
** Moving Jet and the Freedom Fighters to Omashu changes them from partisans resisting an occupation to vigilante extremists -- who are willing to ''assassinate their own king!''
** The Mechanist's fear-induced betrayal makes less sense when he lives in the relative safety of the fortress city of Omashu instead of a vulnerable mountaintop village.